PORTS

   The ports of the Etruscans can be characterized into three main types by character and location. The most famous ports are the sanctuaries of Gravisca, Pyrgi (and to a lesser extent Alsium), and Regisvilla acting as coastal trading emporia for the cities of Tarquinia, Caere, and Vulci respectively. These ports did not necessarily have elaborate facilities, at least in their early use, but ships could make use of the easy access to the beach. Another category is provided by the city ports of Populonia and Pisa, which had more protected anchorages and berthing facilities for ships that would most probably have been quite developed by the late Etruscan period. A further type of port must have existed on the major rivers of central Italy, which can be proved by Roman times to have facilitated a considerable degree of transportation, and must have existed near a major inland city such as Orvieto or at Lucus Feroniae further downstream, even in the Etruscan period. Outside the central area of Etruria, there were important ports such as Spina and Adria with a considerable Etruscan presence, now set some way inland (because of modern silting) but originally placed on the coast, most probably at the head of canals and navigations into the hinterland of northern Italy.