THE SUKEN ROADS

The thick vegetation that grows spontaneously atop the high walls serves to hide the roads. Although the routes are not at all steep, they are a sequence of twists and turns, and in some cases the walls reach heights of 20 meters.

They were greatly used in centuries past, but today just a few tourists will try to explore them. They are fascinating, if you can find the entrance because there is not a single signpost.

Many maintain that originally these roads were nothing more than little streams that carried water to the main rivers. But those who truly know the area believe that they were excavated specifically as roads. In the beginning they may have been little paths which became mule-tracks used by shepherds leading their flocks to the river. With the advent of the Etruscans the cave were transformed into real roads.

Clever engineers that they were, they made the roads efficient, they adjusted the gradients and channeled off the rainwater that flowed down the road during violent storms and was a major cause of ongoing erosion.

When the roads were completed and usable by carts traffic began between Saturnia and Sovana on the one side and Statonia, Vulci, Chiusi and Volsena (Orvieto as we know it today) on the other.

That these roads of Sorano (at San Rocco, San Valentino and Case Rocchi) and Pitigliano (at Pantano, Gradone, Madonna delle Grazie, Fratenuti, San Giuseppe, Annunziata, Cancelli, Sovana and Poggio Cane) were actually constructed is proved by the fact that even though they start from distant points, they all run into specific points in the large, flat valley from which it is easy to reach the towns via the ancient gates, such as the Porta dei Merli.

These roads also made it more difficult and dangerous for enemies who tried to attack the towns. Where the roads converged in the narrow river valleys, there were watermills to which farmers led their donkeys laden with wheat to grind.