Orvieto

Any guesses what this is?

This is R writing!

We woke up in Orvieto to the first real breakfast we've had in a while. They had a small assortment of fruit, pastry, jam and butter to go with that, and yogurt.  They also had the choice of cappuccino or latte. Everyone got a latte, even S after she rejected the cappuccino. 

We went out and headed straight for the duomo. We could barely see it because there was so much fog.  All of us except for E and the littles headed inside. (E was buying tickets for the underground tour.) Inside was beautiful, though the beginning was not as impressive as the outside. The side walls were striped just like the outside of them and there was a beautiful rose window above the door. Then you get to the back and there are some beautiful side chapels. Apparently they are the show stoppers because there is a sign on the one on the right saying you can't visit for more than fifteen minutes. It had a scene of the Apocalypse, which seems like a very popular theme for the Italian churches. It was very colorful and there were some illusions which were impressive.

Then we all headed down to the underground tour.  It was an English guided tour, so no radios or phones or anything. It started with an explanation of how the mountain of Orvieto was formed. The rock was so soft that people dug out caves and that's what we headed down into. Some caves were used for making olive oils. They would have donkeys turn a wheel to smash the olives then they smashed them and strained them through what looks like a tiny dusty old rug. The temperature was perfect for storing wine, too, so they had a wine cellar. We saw an old well that was a perfect rectangle with holes they would us to climb up and down. It was dug by the ancient Etruscans. 

Then we headed to a different section of the caves which were personal caves for families with tunnels leading up to their houses. Some of the tunnels were filled with rubble from cave ins. Cave ins were a problem and we were shown some of the pillars that were built to hold up the caves. Each of the personal caves had holes in the walls to hold pigeons. It seemed like each family would have had about fifty pigeons. There was a little window the pigeons could fly out of. The caves were also used for stables and a bomb shelter. Very useful.

After the tour we slowly made it back up. It was beautiful and sunny now that the fog had cleared completely. It was very refreshing after being in Rome. There were huge bushes of rosemary lining the exit path of the cave area. We even saw some house cats roaming around. They came right up to us and even let L pet them.

Then we headed into the town. The first thing we did was climb up the clock tower. It was the highest thing besides the duomo on the whole hill. While we were up there we noticed a farmer's market in a plaza right behind the tower. The clock bell rang, too, about a minute after we got up. M and I stayed up there, but when we finally unplugged our ears we noticed that S was gone. She had gotten out of there as fast as she could!

View from the tower

The farmer's market was closing by the time we got there, but we did manage to get a cute dress for L. It was smaller than other farmer's markets we've been to, and it wasn't as pretty - just stands ready for business. But we did get some fruit there. 

What was left

Something interesting and new - salted fish

We had a picnic lunch. Then, we were tired of climbing up, so we decided that we'd climb down for a change. M, S, and I headed down St Patrick's well. (E stayed up top with a sleeping L and T who spent the whole time running around franticly trying to catch falling leaves.) The well had a double helix staircase, and it was lunchtime, so it was just us. The steps were shallow and the reason it was double helix was so donkeys could go down and get water and come back up without having to stop and move aside for each other. It was a nice walk down, in my opinion. It didn't take that long. At the bottom, it was to be expected water and some coins and it was pretty dark at the bottom because they didn't have many lights. Then we headed back up, which was a bit worse than down because the steps were very worn down and slippery and leaning backwards. The picture at the top is the well from the bottom up.

photo by T! (S took most of the other Italy pictures)

Right next to the well was a conveniently placed rock fort and lookout point which seemed to just be hanging over the cliffside of Orvieto. There was a playground that we had to stop at, of course. It was small, but it did the job. L went on the slide enough times to satisfy her while the rest of us relaxed.

R and S are on the round tower.

There were barbershops every other building, it seemed, so we decided to let T have a nice Italian haircut. The barber took as much time if not more, styling his hair than cutting. But it looked amazing at the end. T was proud and at first couldn't stop looking in the mirror. When he first saw the barber he was confused as to why he was there because it wasn't his usual barber, but he reluctantly sat down and was well behaved for the whole thing.

E had to do some work, so he went back to the hotel with the littles. The rest of us headed out to wander out to the other side of the town. We saw the old church (1000 years old) but it was closed so we couldn't go in. Then we went to the very edge and looked out. It was a prettier view than over by the well because it was just hills and no city.

The duomo at sundown.

Finally we had dinner at the hotel's recommended restaurant Us kids finished eating early because we didn't want a second course like the parents did, so we all headed back to the hotel and babysat for a while.