Saturday was my personal day to brave Italian transportation and find my way to Orvieto. Actually it was super easy and I'm pretty sure I can get anywhere now. Anyways, Orvieto is about an hour north of Viterbo and it's an old fortress town on top of a hill. The train station is at the bottom of the hill and you have to ride the funicular to the top.
Right next to the funicular at the top is an old fortress with a commanding view of the countryside.
Panorama from the the battlements. A road zigzags down the face of the hill. It was very smoky because everyone seemed to be burning trash that day.
Next to the fortress was some monument, undecipherable to me but beautiful nonetheless.
On the other side of the funicular is the Well of Saint Patrick, built by a pope who fled to Orvieto after the sacking of Rome and decided that no one sieges a walled town, on a hill, with a well. And he was right. Alternate views from the top and the bottom.
And next to the well was some Etruscan ruins, which you can just walk up to and pretend like you're Etruscan, although no one really has any idea what they were all about. This used to be a temple. Actually a lot of the area surrounding Orvieto is rife with Etruscan ruins and artifacts, which explains why there are not one but TWO Archaeological Museums in town. Both of which I went to later in the day.
But before the museums...
The Duomo of Orvieto, which I'm pretty sure is one of the most beautiful Gothic style churches in all of Italy. Each mosaic depicts some sort of the scene from the Bible, which I could read from the pamphlet and tell you but maybe another time. Pictures in the Duomo are strictly forbidden, so the ones I did take were from the hip, all incognito like. I felt like a Russian spy.
Snapshot of the ceiling and one of the stained glass window behind the altar.
The real big sight inside the Duomo is the chapel of San Brizio, conveniently installed with camera detecting alarms. I only managed one or two blurry pics before the alarm sounded and a grumpy guard showed up to yell at the wrong person while I whisked away scot free.
After that it was pauso pranza and the only thing open besides pizzerias was the Museo Archaelogico Civico. The real highlight of the museum was a collection of Roman coins, which were displayed in a rotating case so you could see both sides.
Now the bad news. Pauso pranza still hadn't ended yet so I hoped I could head over to Pozzo della Cava, an Etruscan cave and get there in time for to open and get inside. As luck would have it, the only solid week that the cave is closed happened inextricably to be the same week I thought it a good idea to visit Viterbo. On top of that, I had missed the last tour to see the other Etruscan caves and the Etruscan Necropolis was at this point too far to get to and make it back for the 5:22 train.
Defeated, I grabbed lunch and headed back to the Duomo to visit some of the surrounding galleries. Oddly enough, included in the galleries for Renaissance art and pieces from the Duomo was a gallery dedicated to Emilio Greco. Click on this to see his work:
Artwork.
I still had an hour to kill before I needed to leave to make it back to the train so I figured what that hell, why not another archaeological museum? Posing as an art history student, I got the reduced ticket price and geeked out over even more Etruscan artifacts. I'm quickly becoming a fanatic about a culture I know almost nothing about.
Besides an amazing collection of terracotta sculptures, jewelry, and household objects, they had these suckers. You might be thinking this is Roman, but nay, this is Etruscan armor. At least... I think so. Regardless, how awesome is that?
I have decided to return to Orvieto to spend the whole day doing nothing but visiting the Etruscan caves and necropolis. On the 4th, I depart for the weekend to Florence to stay with mia amica Vivian and try to cram in the top 6 sites within a 3 day period. Wish me luck.
Sidenote: Some people are hollering for more information about the cuisine in Italy. I have been eating on the cheap in order to have more money for travel. That being said, I've started making an effort to take pics of food, both home cooked and purchased. When I have enough, I'll dedicate a whole blog post to nothing but the gluttonous glory of food. And wine... lots of wine.
No comments:
Post a Comment