North west of Grosseto is the little hamlet of Vetulonia, inhabited since the 9th century BC, and by 600 BC was one of the 12 cities of the Etruscan League and an important commercial and trading center, famous for its goldsmiths and politicians, and rich and powerful.

Remarkably, they lost it, in part because it slid into irrelevance after the Roman conquest, but also because somebody changed its name to Colonnata. It was passed around and battled over by various regional powers during the middle ages (as was customary), but it was only in 1880 that a visiting self-taught archaeologist and doctor called Isidoro Falchi visited the town and was amazed to discover the remains of ancient Etruscan city walls right there in the town and nearby necropolises and realised what it was; the fabled lost city of Vetulonia.