Volterra is a useful base for a slow circuit of central Tuscany. San Gimignano, with its medieval towers, is 30 minutes east by car. Siena is an easy hour-long drive south. The smaller hill town of San Miniato, famous for its white truffles, lies north toward Pisa.
For walkers and cyclists, the Val di Cecina opens up to the west toward the geothermal landscape around Larderello, with its 19th-century cooling towers and bubbling soffioni — a strangely industrial detour from the usual Tuscan postcard.
