Friday, June 15, 2012

Orvieto - UPDATED

Thursday, June 14, 2012

We went to Orvieto.  We had a late start - did not leave the villa until after 11:00 am.  Orvieto sits on top of a plateau of extinct volcanoes.  Vineyards grow at the foot of its sheer cliffs.  A maze of tunnels run beneath the city. It has a stunning cathedral, one of the finest of its period in Italy.  There are the world famous frescos by Signorelli in the Cappella di San Brizio.

We had lunch when we got there and then spent most of the afternoon walking around before ending up at a small store that made their own shoes, bags, wallets and belts.  Irene was able to find a beautiful pair of hand made shoes.  They did not have anything that Florine liked in her size.

Anyway, I will have more details on our day in Orvieto later.  Just add it to the catch up list.  Ciao!

Orvieto - updated (June 24, 2012)

Here is the update I promised.

View from the car on our way to Orvieto

A lake we passed on our way to Orvieto - probably Lake Corbara.

Our first look at Orvieto from the road

After parking our car in the parking lot at the foot of town, Irene checked the map to plot our next move.

There was a Chinese restaurant in the town.

First church we saw while walking towards the town centre

Duomo.  Our first glimpse of the cathedral.

By then, it was lunch time so the hunt for a restaurant began in earnest.  One of our numerous travel books recommended Tipica Trattoria Etrusca and we decided to give it a try.  It took us a while to find but find it, we did.

The restaurant we had lunch at

Some of the food that we had

The interior of the restaurant

The restaurant had an amazing cellar.  The waiter brought us down for a short visit.  It was very nice and cool in there. 
Stuffed wild boar seem to be fairly common decorations in many stores


A sample narrow street, with the duomo at the far end

A building with intricate carvings on its facade

Another look at the duomo

Buildings near the duomo

Duomo, again.  We went inside and wondered at and wandered around the amazing frescoes and statues there.  We were not allowed to take pictures.  While I was sorely tempted to shoot some of the beautiful paintings and statues in there, I did not think it was a good idea to do so in a holy place.

Did I not say that stuffed boars are a a form of decoration?  Here's Petros  playing stare down with a boar head.

More walking around, this time to the city wall.  This is a  view from the wall.

Looking straight down from the wall

Looking further along the other side of the wall.  The buildings don't really tilt - it's just my  bad framing.

Another section of the wall

After admiring the city wall, we went back to the main area and found  the Pozzo (well) della Cava.  We went inside to look at the Etruscan artifacts and to admire the various wells.

The well, which is 36 m deep.  They also have shallower wells which were used for disposal.

Back out to the streets.  Another church with a tower beside it.  By now, it was pretty hot and churches have become places of sanctuary from the heat for us.

We wandered down the main street into a leather shop - Maledetti Toscani (Cursed Tuscans).   They sold all kinds of shoes, boots, bags, belts and small leather goods.


Here is Florine looking at wallets.  After that, she tried on shoes but no luck in her size.  Irene bought a beautiful pair of shoes there.
Shopping is hard work, so that calls for a refreshmeent break.

After the refreshment break, we stopped at a garden which was on the way to where our car was parked.  This is a view from there.

We watched a dance troupe practice their routine for a while.  Very energetic performance.  I don't know how they do it in the heat.

Entrance to the garden

Water feature in the garden.  From the garden, we went to our car and decided to take the long way home.  We drove through some country roads, up and down hills and found ourselves in Corbara, which has a lake.

On the road to Corbara

At the lake in Corbara

Bridge in Corbara

Looked like a blue heron to me.  Petros, with his sharp eyes, spotted the bird and pointed it out to us.

We drove to the end of the road around the lake before turning back.  We found a restaurant along the road back - La Penisola.  It looked like a resort hotel.  We decided to have our dinner here as it had a good view of the lake.

The sun was starting to set as we settled back for our dinner.

Reflection of the lake on one of the windows of the restaurant

Our prawn dish

Some of the other things that we ate - lamb, pasta, beef, potato  and something else  that I can't remember.  Might have been sausage.  It's been a while.  That's that happens with after the fact updates.
Sunset shot with my Nikon D5100
 That's the end of the of this update.  Hope you enjoyed this pictorial version.


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