Sep 29, 2012 - Chivita

We had the morning free so we chose to do handwash and work on our photos and blog. After lunch in our room we set out to see more of this town [Or vee ate o] on our own. It's nice...some good views of the surrounding countryside. At 3:00 we were driven to see the tiny Etruscan hilltop village of Civita [Cha vee tah] with its population of 14! It sits atop a tufa bluff that is eroding. To our surprise the Univ. of Washington is studying this problem of cliff sections sliding off, taking rooms and houses as they go. It was a serious 45 min....

Sep 28, 2012 - Ceramics factory & Estate winery

In the small city of Deruta we visited a ceramics factory and were very impressed by their extensive line of products and workmanship for such a small facility. I was fascinated watching the 11 painters hand paint all the designs. After seeing the demonstration of the steps involved in making the pieces we roamed the shop admiring everything. Not too much different from the Delft factory Ivan and I saw last month but these items were all so colorful and some of the vases were huge! As we left we each were given a gift of a tiny votive...

Jul 21, 2012 - Orvieto Classico!

Thursday, July 19th We left Borgo di Vagli after saying our reluctant goodbyes to the wonderful staff and our beloved little cottage. We vowed to return and indeed we have booked it tentatively next year for mid July hoping to bring a couple with us to enjoy this enviable Tuscan lifestyle. We planned to drive to Orvieto today and stay over for one night. Crossing into Umbria we travelled at a leisurely pace admiring the rolling fields of sunflowers and the cypress lined white roads leading to stately winery estates. We planned to stop at...

May 3, 2012 - Chilling in Umbria; Resting up for the march on Rome

Today we took a day off. We passed on the trip into Orvieto that was offered this morning and chose to rest and read instead. I spent a lot of time updating to prepare for Rome. We had lunch at the restaurant—we took almost three hours for lunch and lingered long. This evening we will have dinner here, then pack up again to go to Rome tomorrow.

May 2, 2012 - From Tuscany to Umbria and the churchs of the saints, then to Paradise

Today is a trip to Assisi then to an agriturismo, a bed and breakfast/winery near Orvieto. We got up early and left our hotel under the bright sunshine (Under the Tuscan Sun—get it?). We are on our way to Assisi to visit the haunts of St. Francis and his female counterpart St. Claire. But on the way we passed some stunning Tuscan countryside, a small sample of which I photographed. In Assisi we had two different places to go. We started in lower Assisi at the Basilica St. Mary of the Angels in Porziuncola. Los Angeles is named for this...

Sep 21, 2011 - More Naked Buff Men (bet you read this one)

Another grand adventure.  Today we are head (yes, a bit late) to Orvieto.  I'm very excited, I haven't been here.  On the map it didn't look too far but Sandy had warned me about the mountain roads so we told Thomas to take us the toll roads.  It took about an hour and half to get there.  This time, no Autogrill stop.  We stopped at the Happy Chef.  Very clean, very nice, very happy. Orvieto is a rather impressive hill town.  The hill is particularly impressive.  We climb and climb to find the parking lot by the escalators.  Thank goodness...

Sep 16, 2011 - La Spezia - train to Orvieto

Our experience in Orvieto has been full of wonderful surprises. First of all the hotel is incredible – we thought the hotel in La Spezia was the best with its sweeping views of the Bay of Poets but we’ve changed our minds. This hotel is even better than the promotional photos promise. When we first arrived we walked around the grounds for about two hours – it is just that interesting!! The first Abbey was built here by a Lombard noble Lady Rotruda, at the end of the 6th century around the remains of the old church, San Silvestro, which was...

Oct 7, 2009 - Orvieto, Italy

Perched on the top of a high hill, Orvieto looms ahead and above as you approach by train. With Etruscans as its first inhabitants, it dates back to 800 B.C. The old part is on the hilltop, accessed by foot passengers by a funicular railway. The most interesting thing about Orvieto is the 1200+ man-made caves that exist under the city. They started as water well shafts dug 80 metres deep by the Etruscans and evolved over time as the earth was excavated to use as construction material for buildings. There is now a ban on all excavation for...

Sep 18, 2009 - Orvieto

Visited Orvieto, only 30 minutes from here, but drove around an hour and a half trying to find the parking area. We toured the Duomo and found it to be a near replica of the one in Siena. It had a beautiful facade full of bright mosaics and we discovered the source of the Corpus Christi Catholic Holy Day. Ask us about the relic housed there. There was a beautiful, graphic, and somewhat scary fresco of the end of the world in one of the chapels. They really tried to get the story across for those who could not read. We were on the hunt for a...

Sep 15, 2009 - Our Country Home in Umbria

We picked up a Ford Focus station wagon (Diesel) and headed for the A1 towards Orvieto. We found our exit at Orvieto, followed our Agriturismo's instructions and wove our way up into the mountains! We weren't sure we were ever going to get to the place. When they say Hill Towns, think Appalachian Mountains. These hills are only hills when compared to the Alps just north. We finally found our new base camp in Titignano (teetyano). We checked in to a beautiful room with a once-again commanding view of the Umbrian/Tuscan countryside. The...

Jul 25, 2009 - Orvieto to Perugia

After having a good look at the fantastic panorama of views Orvieto has to offer, we went on a guided tour of Orveto's underground caves. There are 1200 known caves, all manmade & dating back to 1000 B C during the Etruscan period.To ensure a good water supply in times of siege, the Etruscans dug wells 100m deep through the solidified volcanic ash into the water table. And to ensure a plentiful food supply, they had over one km of caves,the walls pockmarked with thousands of holes used as dovecotes. The doves flew out of the caves to...

May 22, 2009 - Orvieto - A Beautiful Hill Town

Rome – Orvieto Fri, Sat, Sun 5-22, 23, 24 – 2009 Once at the Rome airport (only about 15 minutes late) it was a lot of hurry up and wait. The plane parked out on the tarmac, so we ended up waiting 10+ minutes for steps to take us down to the shuttle busses, then another 10-15 minute wait for our luggage (thankfully both pieces showed up) and then quickly through Passport Control once again. Once we were free, our next job was to catch a train into Rome where we could transfer to our train to Orvieto, our home for the first three nights of...