Labirinto di Porsenna (Labyrinth of Porsenna)
A 120m (394-ft.) section of this subterranean labyrinth, cut from the sandstone, is part of a system of defensive tunnels and aqueducts that underpin the entire town and is open to guided tours. They were rediscovered in the 1920s and slowly cleared of refuse, and another good stretch of the cunicoli (water sewers) was opened to the public in 1995. The narrow passages apparently once supplied the Etruscan city, as well as medieval firefighters, from a huge underground lake; the firefighters were apparently less than altruistic and demanded payment in advance before dousing flames from their underground source. An atmospheric half-hour tour leads you through this ancient Etruscan cave system before arriving at a giant Roman cistern, 6m (19-ft.) high with a vaulted ceiling right under Chiusi’s Piazza Duomo; you can climb all the way up the 140 steps to the top of the bell tower inside the campanile of San Secondiano for views over Chiusi and the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside. The half-hour tours are in Italian, with an English handout.
A 120m (394-ft.) section of this subterranean labyrinth, cut from the sandstone, is part of a system of defensive tunnels and aqueducts that underpin the entire town and is open to guided tours. They were rediscovered in the 1920s and slowly cleared of refuse, and another good stretch of the cunicoli (water sewers) was opened to the public in 1995. The narrow passages apparently once supplied the Etruscan city, as well as medieval firefighters, from a huge underground lake; the firefighters were apparently less than altruistic and demanded payment in advance before dousing flames from their underground source. An atmospheric half-hour tour leads you through this ancient Etruscan cave system before arriving at a giant Roman cistern, 6m (19-ft.) high with a vaulted ceiling right under Chiusi’s Piazza Duomo; you can climb all the way up the 140 steps to the top of the bell tower inside the campanile of San Secondiano for views over Chiusi and the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside. The half-hour tours are in Italian, with an English handout.
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