Dennis, George: The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1848)

484 SOVANA. [chap. xxvi.

Sovana is but two miles and a half from Pitigliano, and
appears to the eye still nearer, but in these glen-furrowed
plains distances are deceptive. You ascend from the
ravine of Pitigliano by an ancient rock-sunk road, fringed
with aloes. On the surface of the plain above, you may
trace the road by ruts in the tufo, partly formed per-
haps in more recent times.3 This is elevated somewhat
above the general level of the great Etruscan plain, and
commands a wide sweep of it to the south ; but on every
other hand the horizon is bounded by heights, here clothed
with wood or verdure, there towering into Alpine peaks,
for half the year diademed with snow.

Sovana stands on a tongue of land, scarcely half a mile
in length ; at one end rises the square tower of the Duomo,
and at the other the mediaeval castle, which, with its tall
masses of yellow ruin, and crumbling machicolated battle-
ments, forms the most prominent and picturesque feature
in the scenery of the spot.

It is obvious from the strength of these fortifications
that Sovana was a place of importance in the middle ages.
This city—for such it is in name—"this city, which
governed itself by its own laws, even after the arrival of
the Lombards, which for a long period was the residence
of bishops and of a powerful race of Counts; this city,
which in 1240 was able to make head against Frederic II.,
and to sustain a siege, is now reduced to such a miserable
state, that in 1833 its population was not more than sixty-

3 Similar traces of ancient roads in result of reiterated transit, in any par-
Greece are supposed to have been ticular case, can only be determined by
formed purposely, the ruts or furrows careful examination. The softer cha-
being channelled in the rock to facilitate racter of the rock in Etruria renders it
the passage of vehicles, on the principle still more difficult to form a satisfactory
of tram-roads—forming, in fact, a sort opinion ; but ancient roads indicated by
of stone railway. Mure's Tour in Greece, parallel ruts, cut or worn in the tufo, are
II. p. 251. How far they may be of of very common occurrence,
intentional construction, and how far the