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Does it happen to you too that you know beautiful places to visit close to home and never get to visit them?
So, here it is, the salt mines in Volterra had been on my list of places to visit for a very long time, and I finally managed to do it!
Salt mines in Volterra? That's right, I wrote correctly.
Hidden beneath the delicate hills that can be seen along the road to Volterra, there is a vast deposit of sea salt, which have been used since Etruscan times.
Volterra's salt, as it is an underground deposit protected by layers of impermeable clay, is 99.99 percent pure. Paradoxically, the "sea" salt we use every day, which is extracted by evaporation from seawater, is less pure because the seawater is... heavily polluted! Despite the majority of impurities being chemically removed during the production process, the quality of Volterra salt, which is found to be the purest salt in Italy, cannot be achieved.
The visit includes:
Visit to the salt museum and video projections
Visit to the salt waterfall in the pavilion designed by Pier Luigi Nervi (a famous Italian architect)
Visit to the Salt Emporium
PS. You may wonder, "what on earth can the salt emporium sell?" Well, lots of things made from salt, from beer to chocolate and beauty products. But the most interesting thing are the "salt pearls" that are used to salt pasta cooking water to perfection. We bought four boxes of them!
On the website of Saline di Volterra there is all the information to book a visit, even in English.
I enjoy learning new things. This was very informative. Thank you.
Rosalie
Very interesting, thanks for writing about it.