Orvieto

This past weekend was my first without a school obligation, so I took the opportunity to travel to nearby (but not easy to get to, more about that later) Orvieto, a relatively famous hill town in the southwest corner of the landlocked province of Umbria. I don't have a great photo of it as I was sitting on the wrong side of the train when I arrived, but picture a large plateau of volcanic rock, much like the Acropolis. It was selected as the site of a town because it was easy to defend and the rock was soft and easy to dig into for foundations. Here come the pictures.....

The easiest method to ascend to the hilltop city is by tram, or in Italian "funiculare."

The Duomo of Orvieto dominates the skyline and is the highlight of any visit to Orvieto.

This striping is distinctive in this region as I see towers in Viterbo with the same pattern.

The front of the Duomo is completely decorated with reliefs of pictures but the most stunning are four sculptures that stick out from the facade of the Duomo.

I sat here in the Duomo for about half an hour. I was moved to tears at the grandeur, beauty and just the quiet time to reflect on how I've moved to Italy and how exciting it is to have taken this chance/opportunity/risk. This awe that this structure inspired in me was impressive. It's happened in a couple religious venues I've been in lately. Is it a sign?

The rose window of the front facade from the inside.

The story goes that there was once a priest skeptical of the fact that the communion one takes is the body of Christ. So when he held his communion above his head it began to bleed the blood of Christ. This here is the stained cloth upon which the blood dripped. Or it could be a glorified coffee stain!

The stained glass above the altar.

A famous statue. To think that some sculptor hundreds of years ago had the talent and ability to take a block of marble and create this by removing pieces instead of building it from pieces, is awe inspiring.

To the right of the altar is the Chapel of San Brizio and within it are these frescos. The rule is that 25 people are allowed in at a time. For the half hour I was in there, I had the ENTIRE chapel to myself. The frescos, with soft lighting seemed to glow.

This is the sermon of the Antichrist. Notice in the bottom left hand corner the artist himself. He included himself as his signature. These frescos were done a half century before Michelangelo created his famous work at the Sistine Chapel.

Notice the number of "devils" in this fresco.

Now I take a moment to make a comment on the amazing number of people I see in Viterbo and around the places I've been in Italy that are in wheelchairs. This is a country that was built before accessibility was law or even on the mental radar screens of people. But the developmentally disabled are not hidden away here. They are part of society. Next to the Duomo in Orvieto was a huge celebration of the achievements of those who were born with challenges that most of us don't.

The comment I want to make here is that rhythmnic gymnastics is huge in Italy. In the sports newspaper I read every morning, there is at least one story and picture about some Italian female with a ribbon or hoop in her hand.

Back to our tour of Orvieto

This clocktower, known as the Torre del Moro, is at the heart of Orvieto and divides the cities in its four quadrants.

You can climb to the top of the tower. Here's the clock face from inside.

Shown above is the sharp break from the city and the area below. Just as it was hard for attackers to get up to the city in the olden days, I found out that it's just as hard to get down. The funiculare closes at 20:30. I was having dinner of rabbit and eggplant at a restaurant I found in the Rick Steves Italy 2009 guide. By the way, I was able to have a small conversation with the proprietor in Italian. He only had to speak English to explain the offerings of the evening. My hotel was off the plateau and so I tried finding a road down. I asked a young woman how to get down and she pointed to a road, but said "wait for the bus." I didn't listen. Both paths/roads I tried had me in the dark not towards where I wanted to go and it felt like I was on people's personal property. So twice, I had to climb back UP to the top. I finally just waited for the bus to take me down just like the young woman told me to do.

What's this? A random round building?

No, it's a well constructed in the 1500's. Commissioned by a pope who had fled to Orvieto, it was built to ensure that there was a water supply for the town. In time, it proved to be a great deterrent because attackers knew that residents of Orvieto could probably outlast them because of this well.

The stunning thing is that the well is constructed with a double helix. These steps are quite wide and shallow to allow donkeys to easily walk down.

Here, at the bottom is the end of the downward helix, which travels clockwise.

Turn and you cross over a bridge from which you got water.

The water is amazingly clear, even after all these many hundreds of years.

Looking up from the bottom. The well is called St. Patrick's well after a similar one in Ireland.

And the exit. It is a local saying that if some person is spending a lot of money on a "luxurious" item or project, "it's like digging St. Patrick's well.

In the second "you can't get there from here" moment of the trip. I took the train from Orvieto to Orte from where I thought I was going to transfer to a local Cotral (intercity) bus. After an hour and a half of waiting, I deduced by the fact that NO buses had come by that they didn't run on Sunday's. I figured that I was at the train station that I could get a train back to Viterbo. The supposed 14:55 train didn't show up on the departures board. So, I had to call a colleague and his wife came and picked me up. What did I learn? Travel on Sunday's is tricky and often fraught with transportation options not coming to fruition.