Sorano

Sorano is a medieval hill town in Grosseto Province in the southern Maremma of Tuscany, set dramatically on a spur of volcanic tufa rock above the Lente River gorge. Like its near neighbour Pitigliano 15 kilometres to the south, the town is built on and from the tufa — a soft volcanic stone cut and stacked into buildings, walls, and streets — and the medieval town rising from its geological base creates a striking visual effect. Sorano is somewhat less visited than Pitigliano and has a slightly wilder, less polished character. The principal attraction within the town is the Fortezza Orsini, a Renaissance fortress built by the Orsini lords in the early sixteenth century with an impressive outer wall system and internal courtyard, now partially converted into a small museum. Below and around the town, the tufa rock is honeycombed with Etruscan cave dwellings, necropolises with corbelled tomb chambers, and the Vie Cave — deep sunken roads carved by the Etruscans into the plateau. The Vitozza rock-cut settlement to the northwest is one of the largest cave-dwelling sites in Italy, reachable on foot from the town. The Necropoli Etrusca di Sovana, accessible from a site about 10 kilometres from Sorano, contains elaborate rock-cut Etruscan tombs including the Tomba Ildebranda, a temple-fronted tomb unique in Tuscany. The village of Sovana itself, 8 kilometres east, is a remarkably intact medieval settlement with a fine Romanesque duomo and is the birthplace of Pope Gregory VII. The three towns — Sorano, Pitigliano, and Sovana — are typically combined as a day circuit through the southern Maremma tufa country.