Orvieto

Those of you that have been to Rome know what a beautiful and fascinating city 
it is but as you'll also probably admit, it's a bit intense. So to balance it 
out, I took a day trip to the hill town of Orvieto in the Umbria section of 
Italy. It was a little over an hour train ride north but what a difference from 
Rome. The is the type of Italy I truly love, more of the off the beaten path 
towns where there aren't as many tourist and you can pretend like you live in 
Italy just being there. The train ride up was nice seeing various hill towns and 
flocks of sheep along the way. Like many towns in this area, it is built up on a 
tall hill and surrounded by a wall. Since it's up so high, you ride a funicular 
(for those from Pittsburgh, like the incline; I included a pic) to get to the 
top. Also like many of these little towns, everything evolves around it's Duomo 
(church) and it's piazza. The church here was huge and very beautiful inside. I 
got lucky and on Saturdays they have their big market in the square with people 
selling all kinds of goods. The area is also big on cheeses and meats so many 
people were giving away samples of all of their various cheeses and salami 
(yum!). 
 
There are deli's all over town with boar's heads either on their walls or in 
their windows and they also sell lots of porchetta (roast pork). But one of my 
favorite things to do in these little towns is just wander down the little 
alleyways and sort of get "lost". You really can't because all of them lead 
either to the cliff side, with commanding views of the Umbrian valley, or back 
to the piazza and Duomo. But several times I'd turn a corner and get a "Buon 
Giorno" from someone and a "Ciao" and it just felt like I belonged there. Of 
course I'd also see all the laundry hanging out and accidentally see into 
people's places since the alleys are so narrow and you're right on top of their 
windows (No, I wasn't being a peeping Tom!!) The town also has a cool walking 
trail both all around the base of the city and also up top via a brick path 
along the ramparts. I walked them both and the views were just spectacular. 
 
But one of the other cool things about this town is that it's one of the major 
Etruscan towns which was around back in the Middle Ages a few centuries before 
Christ. The town also has the huge underground cave system and I took a guided 
tour thru some of the caves. Very cool stuff. 
 
After a long day of walking and exploring this cute little town, I grabbed the 
train back to Rome. It was quite the escape from the big city to the countryside 
and I got to do a little "Italy thru the back door" travel. Well I hoe everyone 
is having a good weekend! 
 
Jeff