Siena to Orvieto

day 16 – giorno sedici

This morning we left Siena, bound for an agriturismo outside the hilltop town of Orvieto. The drives between cities seems to be getting shorter and shorter recently. We made a stop in Lower Assisi to see the tiny church where St. Francis realized his faith and where he died. The original church was very small, maybe 20×40, but to protect it they built this huge church around it. St. Francis is the patron saint of poverty and gave up everything he had to serve God. I automatically picture the statues of him with his hands as a bird feeder. I found it strange that in life he was all about nature and not about material things yet they build this huge church to commemorate this area… I don’t know a ton about him, but I would think he would have preferred to have a large wildlife sanctuary and very simple memorial.

We hopped back on the bus and drove up to upper Assisi to grab a light lunch (panini) and see the cathedral. I thought the images and translations on these signs were pretty funny.

I wanted to eat everything in this window. Still haven’t tried cannoli… What am I thinking!?

We got our panini at a little mom and pop grocery/deli. Very basic sandwiches with meat, cheese, and lettuce but they hit the spot. It started raining almost immediately after we got our sandwiches, so we huddled under a nearby archway to eat.

We finished our panini and luckily the rain let up enough for us to venture around town for a bit. Sarah had told us about this Roman church where we could still see drains for the blood of sacrifices, so of course we went to see for ourselves. I was mostly disappointed because the church has since been redone into baroque style and much of the original floor is covered. We could just see small spots in the floor towards the very front of the church that were still exposed. Still not what I had envisioned.

We wandered around a bit more, poked our heads in a couple shops, but it started to rain again before long and we ended up hiding in another archway until it was time to meet up again.

By then it was really raining hard with thunder and lightning. Kind of exciting except I didn’t have the right jacket and we needed to walk uphill a ways yet to get to the cathedral. While we waited for the rain to diminish, our local guide explained a bit more about the square. The Roman church was unique because it is the only one found where the columns land on the stairs instead of at the top landing of the stairs. Eventually the rain gave up enough that we went for it. We went up a ways and then took this beautiful side stairway back down towards the church

This church is unusual because it’s basically two churches on top of one another. It holds the remains of St. Francis. The walls inside were covered with beautiful frescos but no pictures were allowed.

After a very informative tour, we all hit the restroom and then headed back to the bus. It wasn’t long until we caught back up with the thunderstorm. The clouds were amazing and it was flash after flash. There was so much rain coming down it made huge puddles that splashed higher than cars when we drove through. Everyone was very sleepy on the bus, but woke up while we were in the middle of the excitement.

We thought we would get a tiny break in the weather when we got to the agriturismo so we could at least get to our rooms without getting soaked, but no such luck. Sarah had given us our room names on the bus, but it was chaotic with everyone grabbing their bags off the bus and trying to follow instructions to get to our rooms as quickly as possible.

Luckily for us, the storm moved on by the time we met up again for our tour of the grounds and wine tasting. This is definitely a beautiful area and I’d love to have more time to explore it. Tara and I ran down to reception to inquire about massages, thinking it would just take a couple minutes. We ended up being almost 20 minutes late to the tour. Service here is definitely slower than in the US, which has it’s benefits and downfalls. I guess we missed the explanation of how they take care of the grapevines which I was bummed about, but we didn’t miss the wine tasting! This particular place is a wine resort, where they produce organic white and red wines as well as a high quality extra virgin olive oil. We got to see the huge machine which “presses” (grinds) the olives into oil, and then the rooms where the wine is fermented and held in oak barrels. A few key points about olive oils: cold pressed means the olive mash and machine are maintained at specific temperatures throughout the whole process to avoid burning the oil; extra virgin oil has to be under 0.8% acidity by law in Italy; and olive oils that are ~0.2-3% acidity have a high smoke point and are actually good for deep frying. Expensive, but good.

Moving on to the wines, we tried 4 of the 6 wines they make here. The price of the wine greatly reflects the time it took to produce. Table reds take less time to ferment than table whites and they both can be made entirely in the stainless steel fermentation tanks. The more complex wines have spent time in the oak barrels and might take a few years until they are ready to be bottled and released.

Our guide/the owner educated us on the things they are judging when they sample wines; the color, presence of sediment, the aromatic notes, obviously the taste, and how long the taste lingers in your mouth.

After wine tasting, we proceeded down the hill to the resort’s restaurant and had a fabulous dinner. Everything was very flavorful and it was nice to have a lighter dinner, although given the option, I totally would have had seconds of everything. I’m going to miss the food here.

Finally tried cannoli! Yum yum. On our walk back up the hill to our little villas, I noticed flashes in the distance and at first thought they were lights from the ground being shined into the clouds. Then I realized it was the thunderstorm we’d been in earlier. The strikes looked so orange and from our high viewpoint they really lit up the clouds.

Getting a little more tired every day so I’m somewhat looking forward to some down time on our own, but I sure will miss everyone on this trip!