RIVERS, ETRURIA

   The longest river relating to Etruria is the Tiber River to the south, followed by the Arno, to the north, and then by the Ombrone in the center, part of the Maremma. When coupled with seasonal patterns of rainfall and the porosity of some of the parent rocks, there is a profound seasonality to the flow of many of the rivers. The western side of the Apennines is dominated by five long rivers with large catchments that drain into the Tyrrhenian sea. This effect is particularly marked in Etruria, where the two largest rivers, the Arno and the Tiber, dominate their landscapes with sizeable catchments. The larger rivers could also have been effectively employed, particularly downstream, to carry mountain resources of wood and stone into the alluvial zones relatively poor in such resources and generally into the major cities, such as Pisa and Veii.