The atmosphere slides silent and mysterious inside these tunnels up to twenty meters deep, where the sun almost never reaches and where silence is so deafening that you might often find yourself turning round suddenly, convinced you heard something but finding nothing except for the fascinating and unfathomable mystery of the past. This is the mystery that will always and inevitably accompany the people of the Etruscans. They were the ones to inhabit these lands, in the deepest Maremma, almost in Lazio, and they are possibly more mysterious than the others. In this triangle out of time, surrounded by the juicy medieval centre of Pitigliano, Sorano and Sovano, an enormous spider web of underground tunnels, some recently brought to the light, some still hidden, probably forever, in the entrails of the earth. The Hollow ways were built and excavated among the rocks by the ancient Etruscans to be able to move from one centre to the other. To avoid long and tortuous trails but also for defence and not to be seen by the invaders.

Along these Hollow ways there are also rests of possible villages and ancient necropolises, so much so that the most romantic and legendary hypothesis sees these underground passages as sacred roads that connected the dwellings of the living with those of the dead, in connection with the legend of the God Tages, who suddenly appeared from the furrow cut by a farmer’s plough.

To visit the Hollow Ways you just need to choose, you can go along the Provinciale 22, 11 kilometres from Sorano you will find the most famous and simplest to take: Cavone, winding in the depth of the tuffaceous rock showing unequivocal signs of the past (If you see a swastika marked they are not war remains, but, once more, an effigy left centuries ago by the scalpel of an Etruscan). Following the Provinciale 22 further you can encounter some other Vie Cave, such as the San Rocco and San Sebastiano ones, by many considered the most impressive.
Next to the Cavone you will not miss the Ildebranda Tomb. Dating bakc to the III-II century BC it has no connection, of course, with the great Pontiff Gregorio VII (whose birth name was Ildebrando da  Sovana). However, as they knew nothing of the figure who had this imposing and «bizarre» grave, discoverers decided to dedicate its name to Sovana’s most illustrious citizen. The grave is made up of two well-distinct parts: the Sepulchral Room and the Funerary Monument, both entirely excavated in the tuffaceous walls, although some of its architectonic elements were lost.

Only through some decorative fragments found during the excavations, and with confronting to the front of the temple of Talomone, experts were able to return to a fairly realistic reconstruction of the work, constructed following the example of a Greek temple. The whole of the monument was covered by polychrome stuccoes following the decorative art of the Etruscans, who loved glaring colours. Visits to the Ildebranda Tomb cost 1.5 euro, but the cooperative managing it is the same that manages the entrances to the various Caves, and offers different prices and possibilities according to time spent and quantity of historical and natural beauties you mean to visit.

May.2002

Provincia di Grosseto (In Italian)
Comune Sorano (In Italian)
Sovana (In Italian)
Sovana, Pitigliano and Sorano