Sorano: the Tuff Village Nobody Looks At, Between Etruscan Roads and Ruins

Anyone arriving in the Maremma almost always heads for Pitigliano, the "little Jerusalem" photographed in every guidebook. A few kilometers away, on the same tuff plateau, Sorano stays out of the spotlight: the same volcanic stone hollowed out over millennia, the same skyline of houses that seem to grow straight out of the rock, but far fewer tour buses parked at the entrance. It's one of the three points of the so-called "Città del Tufo" (Tuff Towns), together with Pitigliano and Sovana, yet the least talked about.

A village born under the Etruscans, fought over for centuries

Sorano stands on a tuff spur in the Grosseto hinterland, right on the border with Lazio. Its origins go back to Etruscan times, when the area was already crossed by the famous "vie cave," deep corridors carved into the rock to connect settlements and necropolises. In the Middle Ages the village came under the Aldobrandeschi and then, from 1293, under the Orsini family, who turned it into a defensive stronghold against Siena's ambitions: it's to them that we owe the fortress that still towers over the town, completed in the 16th century and now home to the civic archaeological museum. In 1556 Sorano passed to the Medici, becoming part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

What to see: the fortress, the alleys and the cave roads

The historic center is a maze of alleys, stairways and houses partly carved directly into the tuff, with the Clock Tower and the remains of the Palazzo Comitale marking the heart of the village. The Orsini Fortress, with its 16th-century bastions, offers one of the most striking views over the Lente river valley. Just outside the center, in the Città del Tufo Archaeological Park, you can walk along the San Rocco cave roads: corridors several meters high, carved by the Etruscans to connect sacred sites and necropolises, today swallowed by the woods and open to walkers.

Vitozza: the ghost town in the woods

About 5 km from the center of Sorano, in the hamlet of San Quirico, lies one of the area's most singular sites: the rock-cut settlement of Vitozza. More than two hundred caves carved into the tuff cliff, some inhabited until the 18th century, stand alongside the remains of two medieval castles and a small church, the "Chiesaccia." The walls still hold dovecotes with hundreds of niches once used for pigeon breeding. The site was gradually abandoned after 1455, when the retreating Sienese demolished walls and towers rather than leave them to the Orsini; today vegetation has reclaimed much of the area, and walking through it really does feel like discovering a lost city.

Getting there

Sorano is reached by car following signs for the inland Maremma, with Pitigliano as the better-known landmark on the map (the two villages are just a few kilometers apart). Since there's no direct train station, a car remains the most practical option; the tuff towns make a great linked itinerary, perhaps with Sovana as a third stop. For Vitozza, plan on a couple of hours' walk along a loop trail — not suitable for anyone with mobility issues — and wear comfortable shoes.