There is some dispute and confusion about the exact location of the ancient Etruscan city of Volsinii. Noone knows where it was, but we do know is that it was an important city and the site of the shrine of Voltumna where the priests and leaders of the twelve city-states of Etruria met every year. And we know that the Romans utterly destroyed it in 264 BC following a slave revolt and shipped the surviving population off to Bolsena.

Or did they? Some Byzantine historians believed that Volsinii WAS Bolsena. Others disputed that because Volsinii was said to be on a steep height, and Bolsena is on the plain on the shore of Lake Bolsena. Some scholars looked for it in Montefiasconi on the southern shore of the lake, or even Orvieto. But the esteemed 19th century British explorer George Dennis was convinced it was Bolsena given the wealth or archeological evidence he found there.