Volterra, Italy

The dramatic location of VOLTERRA – built on a high plateau enclosed by volcanic hills midway between Siena and the sea – prompted D.H. Lawrence to write that "it gets all the wind and sees all the world – a sort of inland island", and indeed, you can often find seashells embedded in the paving of streets and squares. Busy but still atmospheric, the town's walled medieval core is made from the yellow-grey stone panchino. Etruscan Volterra (Velathri) flourished through a combination of its alabaster mines and an impregnable position, attributes that ensured its survival through the Roman era and beyond. Its isolation was, however, its downfall. Under Florentine control from 1360, it proved unable to keep pace with changing and expanding patterns of trade, and the town itself began to subside, its walls and houses slipping away to the west over the Balze cliffs, which form a dramatic prospect from the Pisa road.