Where those Popes have been …

Ciao!

Up this morning about 6:00 and, as we were just about out of salami and bread, we decided to go out for breakfast this morning.  We walked down to the end of the block and right across the street was a very nice bar/café that was just setting up for breakfast.  R ordered a Café Americano and I ordered ciocolate calda, and we both ordered one pastry each.  As it was pretty early, and there were no other people outside, we opted to sit out there (just as long as no smokers…).  R got his café Americano – a cup of very thick coffee plus a small pitcher of hot water – and my hot chocolate was, quite literally, hot chocolate!  It was amazing – it looked a bit like warm chocolate pudding – and I had to eat it with a spoon – but oh, what a wonderful way to start the day!  Robert was watching buses that went by us, and decided that he wanted to get a bus schedule for Viterbo.  Unfortunately, not sure that such a thing exists!  We walked down to the main bus terminal (but the tourist office is, of course, closed on Monday) and while we were looking around, we saw a really huge building up on the hill; looked like a church, so we came back to the flat to investigate.  (Stopping first, however, at the Tiger market for a few more essentials … and this time, I found that (duh…) there was actually an entire second story to the market – where I was able to find everything that I had missed earlier!  Who knew?!

View from our patio with flowers, church and hill in the back

This looks to be a great place, just across the street from our flat!

All sorts of sandwiches and foods -- Wow!

Just before breakfast!

Breakfast!  Liquid hot chocolate...

My Minions!!!

Cathedral of the Popes across the valley

Bell tower & cathedral

Beautiful loggia on right, conclave hall on left

Original stone blocks forming Etruscan city wall!

Cathedral main aisle

Our old friend from Ephesus!

Stunning painting!

Conclave hall!

Loggia

Me tickling a very large foot!

Hope this makes sense...

We both had the bresaola starter with cheese

R's eggplant with tomato sauce

My spinach filled ravioli with specks of black truffles!

So …

Well … turns out that the Papacy didn’t only go to Avignon, France!  They lived in Viterbo from 1257 to 1281.  Seven Popes in all lived here – before number eight decided to move to Papacy to Orvieto!  Who knew?! We certainly didn’t!  Apparently, life that close to the Romans in Rome was considered quite dicey, as the relationship between church and state was very contentious.  It appears that the Popes felt much more comfortable fortified behind strong city walls that the Romans didn’t appear to want to tackle.  So – we decided we would walk over to see the Cathedrale of San Lorenzo, the Palazzo dei Papi (palace of the Popes) and the ecclesiastical art museum.   All were actually open on Monday, so in we went! The Cathedral wasn’t really anything special at all, but the art museum had some very interesting pieces.  Their little archeological garden included pieces from the Etruscans on up through history, including paintings by Caravaggio and Michaelangelo.  In the Palace, we got to see the loggia from where the Pope would conduct mass and bless the people below, as well as the Room of the Conclave.  It appears that around the time the Popes were in Viterbo, there were only something like 19 or 20 Cardinals.  However, even 19 or 20 can be too many if they can’t make a decision on a new Pope.  At last, the conclave having gone on for months and months, the reigning Priest came up with some new rules to follow. First, the Cardinals would be locked in the chamber, and when they still couldn’t reach a decision, the roof was actually taken off the building!  The Cardinals were then given tents to use to protect them from the elements, and you can still see places in the floors where poles and ties were pounded down. Incredible!  Then the decision was made that it would be bread and water ONLY until they had a new Pope.  And if that didn’t work, they would cut the ration of bread and water.  Sounds a bit extreme to us but apparently some of these conclaves took so long that the populace would actually riot and cause civil disturbance!  So … there you have it!

From the Cathedral on the top of the hill, there was actually an elevator that takes people down to street level.  Then, you cross a park with an amazing statue in it and take another elevator back up to street level!  Quite modern and efficient!  However, Robert was still eyeing the local buses with interest, so we decided to just get on one and see where we went!  Turns out the town has three circular buses that all run into each other, and we got on Line A.  The bus driver did not want to accept any money, so we were able to ride the next almost hour for free!  But as Robert said, it did have its price – he maintains that the shock absorbers on the bus are just as bad as Rome [that is, non-existent! – R], and that his teeth have loosened up considerably.   We’ll see … At any rate, we went in and out of the city walls and saw some very picturesque parts of the city.  Viterbo is a much larger city than we at first suspected, and there are huge brand new apartment blocks on the outskirts that look very attractive.  

We finally worked our way around to the city center again, and got off with the express purpose of finding lunch.  This time, we went down the street from our apartment to Tre Re (Three kings).  We had thought about going there the other night for dinner, but as it was early and they didn’t open until 7:30 or 8:00 pm we decided to go somewhere else.

This time, it was about 1-ish, and raining – not hard, but steady – and they had room for us!

Wow!  Great food; I do understand the Trip Advisor reviews!  We each had their bresaola starter – four slices of bresaola stuffed with soft cheese with black truffles with a bit of parmesan on top.  R’s main course was eggplant in a tomato sauce, and I have spinach ravioli with a truffle cream sauce.  We both, once again, cleaned our plates.  

From there, R wanted to head back to the flat to get some Caltech work done – and I wanted to go to H&M to go shopping!  I had never been in an H&M before, but liked the look of some of their clothes just passing by the window.  So, in I went and came out a bit later with three tops and two pairs of shorts!  How fun! I don’t ever recall going clothes shopping while on holiday before!  Robert could definitely be in trouble now!

Back to the flat and contemplating a nap – especially as I think it’s a rest day on the Giro d’Italia, so not even bike racing to watch!  Oh boy!  Tomorrow we’ll be back on the Etruscan trail, but it is nice to occasionally have a day off!

Love,

m

xxx