Orvieto

day 17 – giorno diciassette

We woke up in the clouds this morning. I was quite optimistic when we headed off to Orvieto proper that the weather would clear up mid morning and I wouldn’t need my rain jacket. The agriturismo we’re at is only a 15 ish minute ride to lower Orvieto, where we caught the funicular up to the hilltop part of the city. The funicular is basically a train car that goes on tracks up the hill. It’s shaped very strangely so that the passengers stay level. A few minutes ride and we were up at the top.

My optimism didn’t last long. We heard thunder almost as soon as we got off the funicular. It started sprinkling a few minutes later and then really raining so we all ducked into a coffee shop and got a bunch of cappuccinos. Tara even tried one even though she doesn’t drink coffee.

We waited out the worst of the rain and then continued up the road to the majestic duomo. Similar to the duomo in Siena, the building is very stripy due to the alternating marble and basalt layers. The facade is magnificent. I haven’t gotten tired of seeing intricately carved rosettes, curled pillars and gilded mosaics. This church used to be filled with sculptures, covered with frescos, and heavily ornamented, but has since been mostly emptied to focus attention on the most important thing, a relic of the miracle of Bolsena. There are still some amazing frescos that were not removed and even now look almost new even though they have never been cleaned up.

Partway through our visit in the cathedral the sun started to shine in the windows! The lower part of the windows are alabaster and glowed a beautiful orange in the sun.

After we’d seen our fill of the church, a smaller group of us gathered up again to take a tour of the Etruscan caves that are so prolific under the city. We also found more cats! They were only interested in food though. The caves were amazing, some huge and some very narrow. They were used for a variety of things throughout history: livestock pens, food storage, pigeon aviaries, olive oil production, water storage, and more recently, bomb shelters. We only got to visit 2 tunnel/cave systems and apparently there are over 1200, with more being found all the time. Many shops and older homes very likely have storage rooms below them, carved into the volcanic rock they live on. Apparently the powder from the rock also makes excellent mortar.

After the cave tour finished, we headed back to the duomo to meet up with David, a friend of a friend who transplanted from CA to Orvieto 4 years ago. He was hungry so we popped in a little cafe and had some fresh squeezed orange juice and a simple sandwich. After that we just walked and talked, with David as our guide, around Orvieto, until we had to head back to meet at the funicular.

We got back to the agriturismo mid afternoon, and although I wanted to do a bit more sightseeing, I didn’t have the energy and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in our room. Did a little laundry, a little blogging, and just put my feet up. We’re so near to the end of the tour already, it’s all going so fast! The sky cleared a bit more throughout the afternoon but it was windy and chilly by the time Mom and I got ourselves together to go for a little walk. We wandered back down the hill to reception and gave ourselves a little tour of the grounds. These were the stairs up to our room.

Dinner was included once again and it was weird, just like Sarah had warned us. We had French fries and a wide variety of meats on a bed of cooked veggies. It was disappointing, because I know the chefs here are excellent cooks but apparently that was their interpretation of an American-esque meal. The meat was tough and the veggies bland. Dessert was beautiful and tasted like whipped cream with cherries.

Such a beautiful setting up here. It would be fun to work at vineyards at harvest time and travel that way. We’re off to our last stop of the trip tomorrow, Rome!