A trip to Orvieto

We took the regional train at 7.03 am from Termini to get to Orvieto. The three of us left our B&B Angeletti at around 6.30 am to catch the 64 Stazione Termini Bus.When we got there, we took a Funicular to the top of the old town.

A typical medieval street, Orvieto

We started by walking on the Via Corso – which is the main road that basically connects you to the other end of the town. This is a major tourist town with the streets lined with neat shops which are like the united colors of Benetton, Gucci and what not- you get the picture, it’s a small town up on a hill but its by no means a boring place. The cappuccino and especially the Chocolat Cornetto that I had there had to be the best one I had in Italy. It was this big café cum chocolate store with a lot of fancy Orvieto Chocolates- and there was this one in particular, chocolates with erotic poses that everyone was giving a second glance to as well as taking pictures. The town has a lot of the medieval features especially the homes and the towers intact.

Chocolates

Orvieto

The southern edge of town which is the cliff overlooking the valley below and also has the city gate on its side. I would assume that the city was actually accessed from this side. It had a parking at the bottom of this edge and I have to admit there was a really amazing lift that connected the parking lot from below to the top of the cliff. The shaft  must have been carved out by cutting the Tufa rocks- which forms the base of the town.

For the tourist

Orvieto is a city in southwestern Umbria, Italy. situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, rising above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are completed by defensive walls built of the same stone. Orvieto was populated since the Etruscan times. It is thus also home to Etruscan ruins and the remnants of a wall that enclosed the city more than 2000 years ago. The interesting buildings to see here are the Duomo or the Cathedral, the Piazza del Popolo with the primary building being the Palazzo del Capitalino del Popolo. The original Palazzo del Capitano was a single ground floor loggia that was used as a market place or for meetings, from which the magistrate would speak to the citizens. This was where the surrounding lords or representatives of vanquished cities came to pay their allegiance to Orvieto.

Besides these two interesting places that are a must see when you go to Orvieto- you want to see the Museums that houses the Papal residence. It has a lot of interesting sculptures and the smaller one has a lot of  late 20^th century sketches.

One of the sculptures on exhibit at the museum, Orvieto

Duomo, Orvieto

You also do not want to miss the interior of the Duomo and for a price of about six euros you will get into the museums mentioned above as well as the room in the church that houses the famous frescoes by … Rick Steeve says, “Why such an impressive church in a little tufa town? Because of a blood-stained cloth. In the 1260s, a skeptical priest — who doubted that the bread used in communion was really the body of Christ — passed through Bolsena (a few miles from Orvieto) while on a pilgrimage to Rome. During Mass, the bread bled, staining a linen cloth. The cloth was brought to the pope, who was visiting Orvieto at the time. Such a miraculous relic required a magnificent church.To the right of the altar, the Chapel of St. Brizio features Luca Signorelli's brilliantly-lit frescoes of the Apocalypse (1499-1502). Step into the room and you're surrounded by vivid scenes of damnation and salvation — Orvieto's artistic must-see sight. Only 25 people are allowed in the chapel at a time.”

An Orvieto must have - Classico!

And finally no trip to a foreign place is complete without a taste of its food. There is a saying which is famous in Orvieto- when you are there you must experience the three C’s- drinking the Classico Wine served in Ceramic pots and see the Cathedral. We had lunch in a fancy café- and I had Don Marcello basically pasta with tomato sauce and cheese and of course the Classico house wine. It was pretty good actually, so it was worth the price you paid for it. For a price of around 12-15 Euros you can get a very decent lunch.Some more sketching and then it was time to go down the Funicular and head to Orte.

Bell Tower, Orte

We took the train back from Orvieto to Orte which was about an hour away towards Rome from Orvieto. The town of Orte is located a few miles north of the railway junction on an isolated tufa rock overlooking the Tiber, near the point where this river is joined by the River Nera. Water from a large section of the Central Apennines (a mountain range) flows into the Nera. The Romans built a bridge on the Tiber to facilitate trade between Rome and Umbria. While the Danube is blue, the Tiber is blond (il biondo Tevere) as it carries in suspension minute particles of earth: during the Middle Ages, when the drainage systems put in place by the Romans collapsed, the floods deposited these particles on the lowest areas of the city covering wholly or in part houses and temples. The history of Orte starts with the Etruscans who dug the caves one can still see on the sides of the rock and used them as cemeteries.

View of Tiber from Orte

Upon reaching Orte around four in the afternoon, we took a taxi up to the old town from the train station below. We had our evening coffee there and I have to say that it was not so good. Left me with an upset stomach and I almost needed Pepto Bismol. Orte is really a small town and the best thing about the town was the presence of the almost miniature Piazza Colonna, which is cute to say the least with its small pillar reminiscient of the column at the Piazza Colonna in Rome. I believe I've already made a post about this little piazza in this blog earlier, A Case of two Piazza Colonnas We walked around for a while observing the historic town of Orte and then took a local bus back to the train station from where we caught the next train back to Rome.