Camucia: the gateway to Cortona and its Etruscan tombs

Anyone who has taken the train to visit the famous hill town of Cortona has passed through Camucia, the busy modern town at the foot of the hill that serves as its station on the Florence to Rome line. Yet Camucia is far more than a gateway: it stands on ground the Etruscans made sacred almost three thousand years ago.

The melon tombs

Hidden among the houses near the centre lies the great Tumulo di Camucia, a burial mound of the 8th century BC more than two hundred metres around, discovered in 1840 by the archaeologist Alessandro Francois and known, like its neighbours, as a melone for its rounded shape. Together with the two monumental tumuli of the Sodo nearby, it forms the archaeological park of Cortona, whose treasures, from gold jewellery to carved altars, are displayed in the MAEC museum up in the old town.

Between plain and hill

Camucia grew up in the 19th century with the arrival of the railway and the reclamation of the fertile Valdichiana, and today it is the commercial heart of the Cortona area, its weekly market and shops serving the whole valley. From here a short, winding climb leads up to the churches, palaces and viewpoints of Cortona itself.

Getting there

Camucia-Cortona station lies on the main line between Florence and Rome, roughly thirty kilometres south of Arezzo, with Lake Trasimeno and Perugia a short drive away.