Orvieto - July 18

I left Rome early Friday morning (I'm almost caught up with this blog!) and then stopped in Orvieto, and Umbrian hill town (google image search Orvieto and you'll see what I mean by hill town...) for the day. I first stopped by the post office to mail some postcards, and then off I went to the beautiful cathedral - inside they have a blood stained altar cloth that was involved in some miracle involving transubstantiation, so that was cool but mostly the church was just really stunning - lots of black and white marble stripes but a really colorful facade on the outside. I took some pics of the landscape over the city walls and then took at tour of the 'Orvieto Underground.' Wayyyy back in the Etruscan times, they started digging caves under the city to find water, as well as to use for temples, and then they became oil mills for olive oil... and then some of the special volcanic rock was quarries, and then some of the caves were used as dove cotes for raising pigeons, and then as ceramic factories, and then finally some where even used as bomb shelters in WWII. Crazy! There are over 1000 caves, most of them attached to private homes in the city, and we spent over an hour touring just 2! Basically the idea was that people lived above the city, and worked under it, for centuries. Very cool tour and only like $5!

After the tour I wandered around the city and went to lunch where I had some super good homemade pasta, and finally ate a full meal! As I walked back towards the funicular down to the train station, I stopped in the park and walked the old city walls with great views of the countryside - awesome! Before I caught the train to Florence I got some ice cream, of course, and before I knew it I was on my way to Tuscany. Orvieto was a great stop for the day, very quaint town with good things to see, and a good intro to the beautiful Italian landscapes in Umbria and Tuscany!