Palazzo Viti, Volterra

Palazzo Viti is one of Volterra’s historic homes and is now a house museum that’s open to the public.

Its construction began in the late sixteenth century by local nobleman Attilio Incontri and the design of the facade is attributed to Bartolomeo Ammannati. 

The palace was bought in 1850 by Giuseppe Viti, a traveler and alabaster merchant, who had it restored. The building contains 19th-century decorations and furnishings, a rich collection of alabaster, antique and oriental objects that belonged to Viti himself and were collected during his many trips abroad. All these objects can be seen today in the fourteen rooms open to the public in which the museum is divided.

In 1964, the sumptuous rooms of Palazzo Viti were chosen as a location for one of Luchino Visconti’s films, who shot some of the scenes of his “Vaghe Stelle dell’Orsa” here, which won the Golden Lion in Venice.