The Museo Archeologico all’Aperto is named after Alberto Manzi, teacher, pedagogist and writer, author of various works including “Orzowei”, mayor of Pitigliano from 1995 to 1997. Located outside the town, about two kilometers from the Old Town, it was born with a strong educational value and from the desire to counteract the process of deterioration of the environmental heritage and the looting of the funerary monuments of the Etruscan age by clandestine excavations, through the valorisation of the natural and historical heritage.
The archaeological area allows the visitor to fully immerse themselves in the history of the places. Walking in the “city of the living” it is possible to reconstruct the various phases of the urban layout: from the articulated proto-historic village of the final Bronze Age, represented by an educational model of a circular hut-type dwelling created in almost real size, to the city Etruscan with the three-room house with portico which allows, with virtual views, to observe the interior.
Walking along the sinuous and evocative Via Cava del Gradone, which is an integral part of this museum area, you arrive at the “city of the dead” below where it is possible to visit the Etruscan necropolis of Gradone with one, two and three chamber tombs, in use from the second half of the 7th century until almost the end of the 6th century BC. Here there is a “demonstrative” tomb, inside which the burial of Velthur and Larthia was set up to relive the sacredness and emotions, typical of an Etruscan funeral ceremony.
A further descent leads to the necropolis of San Giovanni with tombs from the 6th to the 4th-early 3rd century BC. Inside the monumental tomb with a pair of pillars, some panels depicting the costumed theatrical entertainment held during the summer season are displayed. An example of the pottery found is exhibited in the Museo Civico Archeologico della Civiltà Etrusca “Enrico Pellegrini”.