Not sure if we could fit much more in a day! Oh yes, lunch…

Ciao!

We were up around 6 am and then showered and down to breakfast at 7:30, as today has a lot going on! Besides the museum in town, we wanted to get to the necropolis as well as the Belvedere and do the subterranean tour under Orvieto.  So … breakfast first.  Pretty much the same as yesterday, which was great, so absolutely no complaints!  The weather forecast calls for possible rain around 1-2 pm, so we thought that while it was still cool, we should do our “outside” things.  

Beautiful quiet park near the wall

At the wall; quite a view!

That is quite a wall!

The Etruscan Belvedere

Me at the Belvedere

St. Patrick's Well goes down...and down...

Decoration from the Belvedere

More roof decorations from the Belvedere

Etruscan 9th to 7th C BC urns

Bucchero ware - clay fired to look like metal!

Underground Orvieto!

Wine press inside cave

More caves

Etruscan well - you can see "steps" cut into the left side

Pigeon houses

More pigeon houses

Bucchero ware feminine hand

Raised Bucchero ware

One of the tomb walls moved to the museum

Highlight of one of the tomb walls

R's salade mixte

My goat cheese plate -- note black cheese!

R's veal

My guinea fowl

My dessert!

Our first stop was the remains of an ancient Etruscan religious temple.  I am copying over a section of an Umbrian website FYI:

“The temple, from the Etruscan era, is located at the far northern end of the city, on a panoramic clearing. Between the 5th and 6th centuries B.C., it was a building of worship probably linked to the underworld, as revealed by some excavated structures and a black, varnished vase with a painted dedication to Tinia (the name of the great Etruscan divinity, corresponding to the Roman Jupiter) calusna: a Jupiter with "Chthonic" aspects.”

“This is the best conserved monument of Etruscan Orvieto and has always been considered as one of the canonical examples of holy Etruscan architecture. The temple is nowadays part of PAAO (Parco Archeologico e Ambientale dell'Orvietano), a project which focuses on enhancing archaeological heritage in relation to the various natural resources. The various architectonic terracotta can also be viewed from the building. These are of exceptional quality and are on show both at the Museo Claudio Faina and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Orvieto museums.”

“The temple was discovered in 1828 following construction works of via Cassia Nuova and the walls and foundations remain. These show a floor of a building set out with an entrance hall, (the front part) with four columns on the front, behind which an area opens out with three cells alongside with the central part being wider than the side parts. The temple, facing south-east, rises on a high rectangular podium which is 21.9m long whereas the width of the front part (16.3m) and that behind (16.9m) are asymmetrical with no clear motivation as to why this is so. Access was made via a centrally placed ramp and opposite the entrance, closed in by a quadrangular area. The area was probably excavated in tufa behind the temple and covered in cocciopesto (lime mortar with crushed pottery), with benches along the three walls and the other remains of the structure and a cistern which has been excavated more recently are linked to the cult which was practised in the holy area. As a whole, the physiognomy of the temple falls into the category of typical temple buildings defined as "Etruscan-Italian" whose appearance is discussed by Vitruvius (1st century B.C) in his fundamental text De Architettura, which also mentioned a quantity of painted terracotta which cover rafters and structures; pediments which showed even complex pictures, with well-rounded statues in polychrome terracotta of great effect. During the excavation, a conspicuous number of architectonic terracotta were recovered, connected to at least two building phases: a small number of fragments and some matrices belong to the oldest phase (the second half of the 6^th Century to the start of the 5th century B.C.). From the second phase (end of the 5th century B.C.), which is well documented, various fragments related to the high-reliefs of the back pediment have survived. These depict a scene with various characters with significant stylistic similarities to the Magno greco environment, in particular with the works of Fidia.” 

Now, obviously, that was WAY more information than you ever wanted to know, but sometimes background information really does help! 

From the Belvedere, we walked down several levels of St. Patrick’s Well.  This was a well built in the 16^thcentury, when the Pope-in-residence-at-the-time decided that Orvieto needed to be ready in case of siege.  It is REALLY deep, and as we started walking down, we would look out of the openings and look straight down … and really far down! Decided after we’d started that this was not how we wanted to spend our time, so proceeded to reverse direction and head back up to the top.  Good decision, for sure!

From there, we followed the main road downward to get to the big Etruscan necropolis at the base of the cliff below Orvieto.  Arrived there about quarter to 10, and there was a small refreshment stand where we got cokes.  The man there sort of shrugged his shoulders when we asked when the site would open – 10 am – maybe – maybe later!  Great. At any rate, we waited patiently until almost 10:30 and no one had made an appearance, so we decided to head back up. I was rather hopeful that we could get a cab, but when R asked the proprietor to call one for us, it turns out that only available cab in Orvieto(?!) was already occupied!  So, whether we liked it or not, we had to walk back up!  This time, we took the steps instead of the road, and in seriously less time than I would have imagined, we were back in town.

We walked along the Corso and this time, the Underground Tours office was open, so booked two places on the 12:30 pm tour – in English!  Yeah!  Then headed to the Museum Faino, which was yet another location on the Duomo piazza.  This museum was started by an avid coin collector in the late 1800’s, who then decided to expand his collection to include other “local” finds. Eventually, his collection was turned over to the state, but it has some very impressive and interesting pieces in it.

I have to admit that when I started doing research on Orvieto, I was surprised to find confusion about the museums!  Some sites talked about one, the Faino, and some sites talked about two – one the Faino and the other part of the Nationale Etrusche Museo.  And, of course, both museums were located on Piazza Duomo!  So … in our big Etruscan book that we bought a few weeks ago, we finally were able to get to the bottom of it – there are indeed two museums, and they’re very close to each other!  So, after doing the Faino first, we headed back to the room for about half an hour’s rest before our underground tour.  Nice to be able to put our feet up, for sure!  

About 12:15 pm we headed out for our underground tour, which started right on the dot of 12:30 pm.  We actually didn’t have to walk far – just around the piazza from the Duomo, and over to the edge of the hill.  Our Italian guide was lovely, and explained that we would be visiting two separate caves that are both “municipally” owned and operated.  There is a great map that we saw that indicated approximately 400 different caves that currently are beneath the city – but she had to admit, that while there are about 400 actually mapped, there were in actuality more than 1,200 caves in all! Most of the houses and buildings in Orvieto have some underground space, much of it used as wine storage.  It is prohibited nowadays to dig out caves further – there apparently is a big question of stability which could be a real problem.  

Our first cave started life in Etruscan times, with a well dug deep down into the mountain.  As it turned out, once the Romans wore out the folks in Orvieto after a 2-year siege, they forced the Etruscans to move to the town of Bolsena on the lake of the same name.  There the Etruscans stayed, and the remains of Orvieto basically were deserted until the middle ages, quite a long time!  

In the middle ages, the particular cave we were in functioned as an olive mill!  They built in an olive press, as well as facilities for bottling the oil. Really interesting!  Additionally, in cave two, we were in the midst of hundreds of pigeon holes that went on and on and on.  These holes served as nesting spaces for homing pigeons which were raised for food in the city; especially important again, in case of siege.  

It was interesting to see the various spaces in the caves.  There are many staircases built that have now been cordoned off.  These spaces were from houses above, and now there is no need to go from cave to cave underground.  Apparently Orvieto was designated an “open city” in WWII, so it wasn’t bombed, but the civilian population still took to sheltering in the caves when bombers were in the vicinity. (They weren’t looking to bomb Orvieto, but they were looking to take out the rail road and other industry that was located at the base of the mountain.)

From the caves, we headed directly to the second museum in the Piazza Duomo – the Museo Nationale Archaeologico, which was actually close to the rear of the huge Duomo.  Not many people there, but a very interesting collection.  Some years ago, they had disassembled two tombs from the local area and moved them inside, and they were great!  Their wall paintings were very colorful, although it was difficult to make out what was happening in each scene.  

From the second museo, we were scheduled to head to Maurizio’s for a late lunch, but R was really in a bad way – very, very sweaty! [Temperatures in the 70’s but very humid, especially compared to Tucson. – R] So, back to the room for a quick shower and a change into dry clothes, and he was ready to go!  Made it to the restaurant only about 15-20 minutes later than intended – but with R in MUCH better shape!

We sat in a different room from yesterday, and it seems that we were a bit later than yesterday.  No huge groups of people in evidence, although we could see the remains of several huge lunch parties!  Again, started with bread and olive oil, and parmesan with balsamic.  Today, I ordered their cheese plate with honey and marmalade to start (and share) and R ordered their salade mixte – lettuce, shredded carrot and tomatoes.  For main courses, R ordered their veal steak, and I had their breast of guina fowl cooked with pomegranates – which was fabulous!   Roasted potatoes and grilled vegetables on the side.  For dessert, I had a very light cake with cream on top and chocolate, and R had an orange marmalade torte. Everything was fabulous, as was the bottle of white Orvieto Classico!  Finished with a delicious local dessert wine.  Yum!  It’s started to thunder, and we made our way back to the hotel and are in for the night!

Tomorrow we are packing up again and making out way out of town.  First we will head for Fiumicino Airport (Roma) to turn in our car and get another one.  All is well, it's just that there is a limit on the number of days per car rental, so we're changing cars and then heading immediately north again, but this time into Tuscany and Massa Marittima, where we will be for the next four nights.  

More later!

m

xxx