Is it your ancient Etruscan walls, melon tombs 
monumental funerary altar
tabula cortonensis
strategic control of territorial swathe

I too have my Etruscan necropolis, Roman baths
central position
anchoring Creta senesi, River Osborne 
and torrent Copra

weren’t we both then
largely abandoned by history
suborned by wealth subdued by battle
slumbered through a count of centuries


what sly whimsy decreed that you be
favoured destination for spending sprees
while a-straddle the autostrada
i am the one to fade away 

Under the Tuscan Sun