Volterra

Volterra, dramatic and atmospheric, is a place which has been immortalized in international literature. The first to put this walled village to paper was Gabriele D’Annunzio,legendary poet, soldier and novelist from Pescara, set his novel Forse Che Si Forse Che No within the city’s ancient walls.This tragic novel tells the love story between Tarsis, a pilot, and Isabella Inghirama, a noble woman. (The name Inghirama, is a noble last name in Volterra, with Etruscan origins.)

Valerio Massimo Manfredi, one of Italy’s most famous novelists, also set one of his thrillers in this ancient Etruscan city weaving together past and present under the city’s shroud of mist and mystery, gripping the reader until the very end. Chimaira tells the story of archaeologist Francesco Castellani who discovers some rather unusual ancient Etruscan remains, leading to a series of deaths and potentially letting lose an ancient terrifying creature.

Other worldly creatures also appear in what might be the most internationally famous of the books set in Volterra, the Twilight trilogy, where the Volturri, one of the oldest and most powerful family of vampires, live and take their name from.

Titania Hardie is another author(non e’ Americana) who set her novel, The House of the Wind, in this great literary city. It is the story of Madeline, grieving after her fiancées death, who escapes to a ruined villa in Volterra. The story of Madeline interweaves with the story of another woman, Mia, who lived in the same villa in the 1300s and was also faced with her own tragedies.

Volterra’s atmospheric setting is the perfect backdrop for stories that blend past and present; like Chimaira, Il Volo dei Corvi (The Flight of the Crow), by Antonio Gestri is another thriller strongly influenced by the magic of Volterra.

Perhaps, the author who more than anyone has linked his works to Volterra is Carlo Cassola, a famed Italian neorealist. His most important novel, which won the Strega Prize, Bébo’s Girl tells the story of an Italy fresh from the second world war where the echo of the resistance was still strong.

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