The Vie Cave are an evocative Etruscan network of routes that connect various settlements and necropolises in the area between Sovana, Sorano and Pitigliano, mainly comprising trenches dug between steep tufa rock walls, sometimes over twenty metres high: these paths were also an effective defence system against possible invaders.
In Roman times, the Vie Cave became a part of a road system that connected to the main stretch of the Via Clodia, an ancient connection route between Rome and Saturnia, through the city of Tuscania, that branched off from the Via Cassia in the Latium region.
The Vie Cave are the emblematic representation of a large area that the Etruscans lived in, and their intense attraction makes you feel like an ancient traveller.
These attractive paths dug into the tufa rock hills have no comparison in other civilisations of the ancient world. That is why so many hypotheses have been conjured up about their true purpose: channels for directing rainwater from the plains to the valleys, simple communication routes, strategic passages created to combat enemies, ceremonial paths and so on...
The Vie Cave of Sorano and Sovana in the Citta’ del Tufo Archaeological Park lead visitors on a discovery of Etruscan necropolises. Walking into these “slashes” in the high tufa rock walls, that can reach over twenty metres in height, is an indescribable emotion.
Walking along these routes, set amidst beautiful, uncontaminated nature, will transport you to a magical atmosphere, in contact with the substratum and in “another” dimension.