Orvieto: Gary's favorite

Thursday 10/24

This marks Gary's third visit to Orvieto. He fell in love with the place during his first visit with Steph about 4 1/2 years ago, and then was the tour guide for Emily, Jordan and me in 2011. There's a lot to love about it, starting with the beautiful Duomo and its amazing facade and large piazza, this hilltop city has tons of darling streets full of shops from prodotti tipico to hand-painted ceramics. Add lots of great restaurants with outdoor seating. We even have a favorite table at this Enoteca!

Orvieto's grand Duomo

Sipping Orvieto Classico, the local wine

Piazza Duomo

Another piazza in town/beautiful architecture

Il Mago di Oz cute toy shop

This Duomo has an interesting story: The Miracle of Bolsena. In 1263, a priest on pilgrimage in nearby Bolsena blessed bread for communion and the bread (Body of Christ) bled, dripping onto the altar cloth (Corporal). The bloody cloth was presented to the Pope who declared a Duomo should be built, and it took 400 years to complete. We love this Duomo with its marble pattern reminiscent of Siena's. The facade has fantastic marble relief carvings depicting Biblical stories.

God takes Adam's rib, lower left panel

Fascinating marble work of the Facade

Duomo's interior

Inside the nave is more stark than Siena, but we did see the Corporal Chamber with the miracle cloth (no photos there). We thoroughly enjoyed the Signorelli frescoes of the San Brizio Chapel, with their brilliant colors and design. It is the often-told story of the Last Judgement, beginning with the preaching of the Antichrist, and ending with the raising of the dead. These paintings are fabulous!

Signorelli's "Preaching of the Antichrist"

"Resurrection of the Bodies"

Since we had plenty of time, we elected to take in some of the points of interest. We walked to the bottom (and then climbed back out!) of St. Patrick's Well; commissioned by the Pope in the 16th century, during his hide-out in Orvieto due to attacks in Rome. The cool thing about this well is that it is a double helix: it has two concentric spiral staircases-one for up and one for down. An amazing engineering feat-pretty smart back in 1527!

St. Patrick's well

We also took a tour of some other underground sights, starting with medieval caves and Etruscan wells. This area was inhabited by the Etruscans from about 7th-1st century BC. They dug over 1000 wells in Orvieto and had an amazingly advanced culture. The other cool thing about this underground tour, was the use of these caves in the Middle Ages for grinding olives, and as a dovecote to raise pigeons for a food source. These caves were also used as late as WWII as an air-raid shelter.

 

Wall holes (dovecote) for Pigeon raising, Middle Ages

Since we were on an Etruscan roll-we even took in the small Estuscan museum that holds a huge collection from this era (about 7th-5th cent. BC).

Etruscan pottery 7-5th cent. BC

Etruscan artifact

They even had some older pottery found locally from the Bronze Age (1000-2000 years earlier). Amazing!

Bronze Age Pottery 1000-2000 BC

We even had time to stroll around the base of the city on the Rupe pathway. Beautiful views of the peaceful countryside.

Walking the Rupe path around the base of Orvieto

Etruscan necropolis (tombs) outside of town

Lastly a word about this little guy-Pinocchio is a favorite in Tuscany, where the character was born in the late 1800's. He is everywhere!