According to legend, it was founded by the Etruscan King Porsenna of Chiusi; recent findings prove that a settlement was already in existence in the 4th-3rd centuries BC. In Roman times it was the seat of a garrison guarding the main roads of the area.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it developed as a religious center under the Lombards. In the 12th century it was repeatedly attacked by the Republic of Siena, which the Poliziani faced with the help of the Perugia and Orvieto, and sometimes Florence, communes.
The 14th century was characterized by constant struggles between the local noble families, until the Del Pecora family became rulers of the town. From , Montepulciano was a loyal ally and later possession of Florence and, until the midth century, lived a period of splendour with architects such as Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, Baldassarre Peruzzi, Ippolito Scalza and others, building luxurious residences and other edifices here.
In , when Siena was conquered by Florence and Montepulciano lost its strategic role, its importance declined. And that's why during a trip to Florence, Italy, I spent nearly three hours trekking to a remote town that has major connections to the iconic vampire series — Volterra, where the fictitious vampire royalty the Volturi reside.
The place inspired much of the series, even though the scenes in the movies that were set in Volterra were filmed in a different part of Italy. Here's what it was like to visit the famous place that's mentioned so often in the "Twilight" franchise. As soon as I reached Italy, I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to travel to different towns in the area — especially if I was staying within the Tuscany region.
It was going to take us two trains and a bus, but it seemed doable, with each train taking 50 minutes. The trip should have been simple: We had to take the train from Firenze to Cecina, then one from Cecina to the Volterra-Saline-Pomarance station, followed by a bus up to Volterra. The second train ended up being noticeably older and smaller than regular trains, and as we approached our stop, there were fewer and fewer people getting off, until we were one of a handful to get off at Volterra.
The station consisted of a small, manicured building in a nearly deserted part of the countryside. I later learned this station was actually a " railway halt," a small stop along a railway that's commonly used when not many people regularly disembark at a certain area. We were told by a local store owner that there were no taxis in the area so, we ended up waiting two hours for the next bus. In order to reduce the steepness of the hill's incline, the roads were zig-zagged upward, much like how it's described in "New Moon.
I think "hill" is putting it modestly — the incline was intense and it almost felt like we were going up a mountain. As we rode up the hill, I remembered the books and how Bella was nearly going to have a panic attack because it was taking so long for Alice to drive up to this very city — I didn't feel so great during my ride to the top either. As you can imagine, the zig-zagging isn't great for motion sickness. When we finally got off of the bus, we entered an archway into the town and then walked along the steepest street I'd ever seen.
It was nearly ladder-like with how steep it was — just the thought of someone clumsy like Bella Swan running through these streets to find Edward Cullen seemed highly implausible. I mean, Bella Swan gave herself the most famous paper cut of all time and has tripped on thin air.
But "Twilight" is a book about vampires and werewolves, so I let it slide as one does when it comes to the iconic series. Luckily it wasn't hard to find the piazza where the clock tower is.
This was, of course, a big moment for a "Twilight" fan like myself. In the books, this clock tower is where Edward went when he thought Bella was dead. As the clock struck noon, he meant to step into the sunlight and force the Volturi to kill him. The Guinigi Tower. Massa Cathedral. The Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano. San Francesco Basilica in Arezzo. Santa Maria della Scala. Cascate del Mulino hot springs in Saturnia. Piazza Duomo in Pistoia. Coast The best of land and sea.
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