Il Parco di San Silvestro
Dateline: 05/22/97
The hills inland of Populonia,
a promontory on the central Tuscan coast, are called the Colline
Metallifere – the Metalliferous Hills. The area is a mineralogist’s
paradise, and if you’re driving along you can easily come around a
bend and see a spectacular array of colors where an ore vein comes to the
surface. In the past people did more than appreciate the beauty of these
deposits: The region is honeycombed with mines, some dating back to the
Etruscans. The veins of the Valle dei Manienti (directly inland of the
town of San Vincenzo) were instead worked during the early Middle ages by
the Conti della Gherardesca, who extracted silver-bearing lead, copper and
iron. 
Of
course, the miners needed somewhere to live, and since they were providing
a valuable service to their lords, the counts built them a fortified town.
San Silvestro flourished for about 300 years before changing economic
conditions made the operation uneconomical, and then it was abandoned.
Until 1984, when Riccardo Francovich, an archaeologist at the University of Siena, began to strip away the tangle of vegetation that was overgrowing the ruins. A tower emerged, followed by a cistern, and then a courtyard, and a tiny church, and as they continued to excavate further down the slopes, the remains of the whole town, with about fifty houses within the walls.
The excavation is nearing completion, and San Slivestro is now the centerpiece of a fascinating archeominarary park with hiking trails, mine shafts you can visit (with a guide), and traces of all sorts of minerary endeavors, dating from the Etruscans through the post-war period. It’s a perfect change of pace if you’re spending a few days at the beach, especially if the wind kicks up, stirring the waves, and the lifeguards won’t let you in the water because of the undertow.
You should park in the Valle del Temperino, and begin with the museum, which has a nice mineral collection, with some beautiful specimens from the various mines, and exhibits devoted to miners and mining. Guided tours of one of the mine shafts sunk at the turn of the century by the Etruscan Copper Estates Mines (an English company that worked the veins from 1900 to 1907, then went out of business) depart hourly on the half hour in June, and on the half hour in July and August. They require covered shoes.
Once you have seen the mine shafts, you can either drive to the
Villa
Dei Lanzi (named after the Tyrolian miners Archduke Cosimo summoned and
quartered there in the 1500s) and then hike up to the village (it’s
about a half mile), or hike over from the Valle del Temperino. The hike
takes about three hours, and follows a well-marked trail with rest stops
and lots of things to see, everything from powder houses and a section of
the narrow gage rail line built by the English company to pre-Roman shafts
and pits. San Silvestro itself is quite beautiful, and even though only
the walls remain enough has survived to give you a good idea of what life
must have been like: The boredom of the guards, who scratched the patterns
of board games into the steps by the gate; the constant need for water,
which led the inhabitants to chip grooves into the bedrock to guide
rainwater to cisterns; the tremendous need for security, which led the
people to keep everything of value (water, lamp oil, etc.) in an inner
keep though the village was already heavily fortified.
Though
the park wardens give guided tours (on the hour in June, and on the
half-hour in July and August), you may want to explore the village at your
own pace. It should take about an hour, and once you’re done, you
should also look at the experimental station, where the archaeologists
reconstructed the smelting furnaces to find out how efficient they were.
Quite, and indeed the village was completely self-sufficient with regards
to iron. Copper was also refined on site. Silver was not, however: It
occurs in galena, lead sulfide, and the Counts Gherardesca found it more
practical to smelt the mineral into lead, and then extract the silver from
the lead once they’d transported it to Pisa (bandits were a problem,
and lead ingots are a lot harder to steal than flakes of silver). Even so,
the skeletons of a couple of people dead of ax wounds were found in the
slag heaps by the foundry; they differed physically from the people whose
bones were found in the cemetery, and may have been thieves, or even
pirates.
Getting there: Campiglia Marittima is close to the coast. Take the Aurelia, the Roman road to Marseilles (it's at last four lanes), to San Vincenzo Sud; follow the signs for Campiglia Marittima, and then those for the Parco Archeominerario. It’s about 10 kilometers.
On a very different note, Baratti's Andrea Magri rents boats. Why the excitement? Baratti is a gulf nestled under Populonia, a spectacular promontory about 70 km south of Livorno; it's shielded from the sea and calm even when the crews of the boats off-shore are getting sick. With calm seas, on the other hand, Populonia has dozens of tiny inlets that can only be reached by boat. It's a sun-worshiper's paradise, and also a diver's -- you may even find something Etruscan under the waves, because Baratti is where the Etruscans smelted the iron ore they mined on Elba, and their transport ships did occasionally sink.
Andrea has:
- 4 small boats, with outboard engines -- suitable for up to 4 people, they can be rented for the day at a cost of about 150,000 lire.
- A larger boat, suitable for up to 8 people, which can be rented for the day at a cost of about 200,000 lire.
- A taxi-boat, with which he will take you to the inlet of your choice and return to pick you up when you want, at a cost of 15,000 lire.
- A tour-boat -- view Populonia from the sea, at a cost of 15,000 lire/hour, while someone else drives.
During the high season you should make reservations, by calling on Italy - 565 (0565 from within Italy) 45119, or Italy - 336 710544.
Andrea does not rent diving equipment. However, Blue Sub (across the pier from him) does. To reach them call Italy - 565 885602 or Italy 338 6756116.
Have a great time and try not to burn,
Kyle Phillips
Have a great time,
Kyle Phillips
