Orvieto

For a day trip to get out of the city, Sarah and I traveled to the Hill Town of Orvieto. Home to 3000 year old Etruscan ruins, Medieval architecture, caves, wells, and the famous Orvieto Classico white wine!


Orvieto is a 1 1/2 hour train ride north of Roma, about halfway to Firenze. It is a popular tourist location due to its close proximity to major train lines along with Roma and Firenze. In short, it was a great day trip and we both had an amazing time. One great advantage to my approach of not leaving Italy to travel while I am here is that I have now hit most of the big sites and have the opportunity to visit some of the lesser known places which tends to yeild great results. We got off at the station and bought a card which gave us entrance to basically all the big sites in the city, and for the rest of the day we visited as many as we had time for!

After a ride up the funicular, basically a steep train that brings you to the top of the hill, we did a short walk around one of the Medieval fortresses.

thats a 45 degree angle...

Afterwards we walked into the historic center and saw the Duomo. This size of cathedral is kind of strange to see in such a small city, however throughout time there has been numerous times when the pope had to flee and choose Orvieto as a place to go. This Duomo stands as one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in Italy.

there was a orchestra concert being set up

The inside has beautiful alabaster windows, it was a very simple, clean interior.


The exterior had four columns each telling its own respecting story or the Creation, Old Testament, New Testament, and Revelations.

Inside the Duomo there was the Capella di San Brizio (chapel) which was painted by Luca Signorelli (a infuencial figure for Michelangelo). It told the story of the Apocalypse and was the most beautifully painted frescos I have seen yet.

After leaving the Duomo we climbed the highest remaining tower and got excellent views of the city and surrounding region.

we are so cool....

windy medieval streets

bells

The rest of the walk found us at the otherside of the city where we decided to drop down a long series of switchbacks and boardwalks to visit the Etruscan ruins of Necropoli Crocifisso del Tufo. The Etruscan people inhabited a lot of Italy (especially central) from 900-400BC until the Romans conqured them and stole all their ideas. This site was a necropolis (cemetary) for their ancient civilization in Orvieto.

we are looking up a cliff.


Sarah is tentative about entering.

she is afraid of the spirits.

well she entered a few of them

Etruscan ruins and the cliff of Orvieto

cool 3000 year old writing

After the grueling hike back up the hill and into the city we visited one of the 1200 discovered man made caves in Orvieto, this one happened to have one of the only remaining wells that was dug in the 15th century when the pope hide here and wanted a water source.

Orvieto is known for the three C's, Cathedral, Ceramics, and Classico (wine), and the other one should really be Caves. The Etruscan people dug over 1200 of them in the soft Tufa and Prezzmolo rock (its cool because its what you make cement out of and it hardens when it ozidizes). Only 2 of these caves and owned by the city, so that means that if you live in the city of Orvieto you most likely have your own private cave under your house as well. The Pozzo della Cava was a great example of a private cave along with a great exhibit of old and new ceremics. The clay base for the hill makes great pottery!

this is deep

We hit up the museum of Museo C. Faina (which had some cool bronze stuff and 3000 year old ceramics) before we took a guided tour of the 2 public caves called the Orvieto Underground. In this tour we learned about the caves various uses. Origionally they served as homes for the Etruscans. Around 400 BC the Romans took over and destroyed the city, the Romans never lived here. Then in the 13th century people began to inhabit the hill again. Orvieto became thrown into the turmoil of the wars between Firenze and Siena and served as a fortification for the pope as well, however its was the olive oil, wine, and cement that made the city so prosperous. They would dig out the caves and use the rock for cement. Afterwards they would use the perfectly static temperature of the caves for olive oil presses and wine storage.

old olive oil and wine press stuff

cement cave

old Etruscan well with hand holds to climb back up

pigeon homes/holes

Another fun use was the pigeon homes. Pigeon used to be (and still is...) a very sought after meat. They found that the caves that had natural entrances were perfect for pigeons so they made homes that they would use. It was a free buisness because the pigeons would fly out to eat and then always return home where they eventually were killed and eaten.

The next stop was Pozzo di San Patrizio. This was the enormous well that was dug for a pope in hiding in the 15th century. It is over 250 ft deep and has a double helix to accommodate both human and donkey traffic to the water!

this is even deeper

500 years of money

For the last stop of the day we arrived back at the Duomo to see it lit up at night and ate some tomato/mozzerella/oil paste paninis and drank the Orvieto Classico wine.

the precious Orvieto Classico