Palazzo Incontri-Viti - merchant’s mansion

This impressive mansion also feels like a private home - and it began as the home of a discerning alabaster merchant whose heirs still live here. Giuseppe Viti (1816-60) travelled the world to present his wares and, in India, sold his alabaster to the local rajah and bizarrely, was then made Emir of Nepal.  The façade of the mansion is attributed to Ammannati, who worked on the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Each salon is grander than the next, adorned with art, porcelain and alabaster, a reminder that the palace once belonged to one of Volterra’s richest citizens. Renaissance buildings like these blend in surprisingly gracefully with the medieval Volterran houses. After exploring the patrician palaces, retreat to Le Cantine del Palazzo, the Etruscan-Roman cellars below Palazzo Incontri-Viti, for a drink or a meal in a cavern-like setting with a Roman cistern as decoration.

Address: Via dei Sarti 41, Volterra
Web: www.palazzoviti.it