A walk around the centre

The first thing that strikes you as you approach Tuscania are its town walls built from the local tufo rock, encircling and protecting the medieval centre, snaking up and down the hills on which the town was built. The skyline is studded with towers and churches, some in ruins after the major earthquake that hit the town at 7.07 p.m. on 6th February 1971 (in fact, many buildings and the walls have been rebuilt since then). There's a large car-park just outside the main entrance, though cars can enter through Porta Montascide (14th Century) and Porta del Poggio (rebuilt in the 18th Century) and there's more car-parking (limited) at the bottom of the main street near the Theatre / Town Hall (Piazza Basile), the decommissioned Church of San Francesco (on the old Via Clodia), the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and the Basilica of San Pietro. The centre is a typical medieval Italian town, with alleys, arches, palaces, fountains and cobbled streets. It's split into three neighbourhoods: Valle, Poggio and Castello. Go inside the walls, through Porta del Poggio and down Via Roma. On your left you'll find Piazza Bastiani with an interesting fountain, loggia and the Cathedral of San Giacomo. Wander down Via del Lavello and you reach Torre del Lavello and the Parco del Lavello with its small amphitheatre and fantastic views across the Marta Valley. Follow Via della Lupa round and down to Largo delle Sette Cannelle with its ancient fountain. The road then leads, between tall walls, to the Basilicas of Santa Maria Maggiore and San Pietro: two Romantic churches from the 13th Century set on a hill above the rest of town, with Etruscan/Roman ruins nearby. Just outside the walls, on the road leading to Marta is the Archaeological Museum next to the convent of Santa Maria del Riposo.