I'm sitting in a hotel lounge in Orvieto, Umbria. With every phase of traveling there are some form of challenges. Whether it's the fourth floor walk up in Firenze, potato chips for dinner in a deserted Magreglio, or recently failed wifi and no self-service laundry in Orvieto, every phase of this trip presents new challenges. And every one of these challenges, however small they may be, become more easily dealt with and taken in stride with the experience gained as a traveler. None of the "inconveniences" are major (well, maybe if I couldn't get any food in Magreglio without a car, that would have been a deal breaker), but each deviates you from the plan a little bit. I'm learning to deal with it. Traveling helps you learn how to deviate from the plan. That's what makes it interesting.
Because I have never been to Orvieto before, I had planned to do a day of tourist activities, the Duomo, roam around town, and so-on. Upon arriving here after an epic day of traveling (riding a bus, four trains, a funicular and another bus from 7:30am to 3:30pm), I was "pleasantly surprised" that the hotel wifi was down and that there was no laundromat in town. Laundromats aren't a big thing here. Either you wash and hang your cloths yourself, or you pay someone to do the whole thing. I found the nearest Lavanderia... they were closed. Back to the hotel to ask for directions to another one. This one was across town, but luckily town is really small. Like most businesses here, be they restaurants or lavanderias, this place was family run. The woman's son spoke a tiny bit of English and I, despite not drinking wine, know that secco (as in prosecco) means "dry". I wasn't sure if they used dryers, but I had to make it clear "non secco fabrica tecnica" otherwise I was going to end up with a $1200 pile of melted cycling clothing.
So, with my clothes entrusted with this family until 6pm the next day, it was predetermined that I would not be cycling until Wednesday. With that, today became a tourist day. I must admit, it was a little strange, but enjoyable to sling the camera over my shoulder with the hand-drawn map in my pocket for my first day as a tourist on this trip. Thus far, I haven't really done anything touristy. This was the first time I paid to get into so place, followed closely behind by some obnoxious tour group.
First, let me say that this place is unbelievably picturesque. If I told you, imagine a typical town in Italy and you magically had the ability to sketch it out, you would probably draw something that looks like Orvieto. Yes, it is a popular tourist destination, but unlike Firenze, it isn't filled with tourist trap restaurants or too many stores selling hokey pasta covered aprons or blue Italia sweatshirts. It's everything you'd expect Italy to be, and it's especially beautiful at night. Practically every street is cobbled. The walls that elevate the town above the Umbrian countryside, created by volcanic activity and erosion, feature beautiful ramparts that you can stroll along. The streets are narrow and winding and it's preserved antiquity to the max! Just beautiful!
In spite of that, there isn't too much to do here, by the way of tourism. That's not to say that it's boring in any way. I could spend a long time here just strolling the streets, every one unique and romantic, especially after rainfall, the ancient paving stones glistening like diamonds under the light of antique street lamps, which line the main passages.
I hit the main sites today. I started with the Duomo. It's facade is ornate and so grand in stature, a magnificent edifice in comparison to rest the town of two to three story terracotta-roofed stone houses. The interior is quite bland, especially considering that in many ways (the alternating green and white stone construction and colorful facade) it reminded me much of the Duomo in Siena, which has the most elegant and dare I saw gaudily decorated interior I've yet seen in a Duomo. However, the two chapels on the sides of the main pulpit (I think that's what you call that thing) were beautiful and painstakingly detailed.
Many thoughts struck me as I wandered this great cathedral today: 1) I am so consumed by the process that must have ensued to create such a structure and decorate it in such a way. No one does anything like that now. It's all about efficiency. And that leads to boring architecture. What incredible paint jobs, and the frescos, even so much as laying each stone to alternate colors, and the geometric tile jobs on the floors. That amazes me. 2) The Catholic Church has a lot of money (yet they charge 3 Euro to get in). 3) I don't know the slightest thing about Catholicism. I look up there at Jesus on the cross and I see him as a man, and dying that way had to really, really suck! I am very intrigued about the whole thing. It's quite a story, certainly as a literary work anyway. 4) I'd like to travel somewhere where Jesus is not the "God of choice". It would be interesting to see people with that spiritual connection to another deity. But no, I'm not going to Israel. Too bad China has gotten so Christian, Buddh would be cool. Maybe one of my Indian students will take me to India to lean about Hinduism.
Anyway, yes, I digress. This is what happens when I don't post for a few days! My next stop was... I don't remember. I did a lot of walking today. Oh, right! I went under the city into the caves. How could I forget that?! Across the piazza from the Duomo there was a little shop that sold tickets for Underground Orvieto. Be it for a well, food storage, wine storage, olive oil production, pigeon raising (a typical Umbrian dish), mining, or even refuge during times of war (as recently at WWII), the network of caves, essentially peoples' basements, were a major part of Etruscan life in Orvieto. It wasn't so much of a network, as it was tunnels from individuals' houses. Today, through excavation, a few of these manmade caves have been opened as a fascinating underground "museum". While quite fascinating indeed, I was honestly more excited about the incredible amount of wild rosemary growing on the side of the path to the caves. Wild rosemary is as important to this area's cuisine as the wild boar. It's like nothing I've ever seen. Bushes of it four feet high! (Look at the picture below Mom. That's how much rosemary I want). Then I found a big patch of wild fennel (not the bulb type), and then wild thyme, and even wild arugula. No, I wasn't in someone's garden, I'm in Umbria!
After strolling the ramparts for a bit, stopping in an intriguing bakery for rosemary sea salt breadsticks and chocolate pistachio biscotti, I was off to lunch (ravioli filled with mozzarella di bufala in a simple sauce of pomodorini and basil) then my next tourist stop, to climb the clock tower at the center of town. Though not that high itself, the tower is at the highest point in town and very strategically located. From there it was an incredible 360 view of the town and surrounding Umbria and Lazio as well as a bird's-eye view of the Duomo. This was the first time ever that I climbed a tower in Italy without waiting on line... a notably unique experience.
My last tourist destination was in the complete opposite direction, and I don't mean on the other side of town (actually it was but that's not the point). I mean, I climbed to the top, now I was going to descend to the bottom. Il Pozzo di San Patrizio (St. Patrick's Well), an ancient well commissioned by a fearful Pope who hoped to use Orvieto as a refuge if Rome was sacked and need a reliable water sources. The construction was innovative. Basically it feature a double helix design, wherein a staircase with steps wide enough for a donkey carrying buckets, winds its way down the well. At the bottom, you cross a "bridge" over the water and ascend a separate similar staircase back up. It's really cool! Definitely the first and maybe last time I climb inside a well.
So, in that way I did my fair share of saliscendi today. Between the stairs and walking from 10am until 10pm, I'm pretty fried. Aside from tourist activities, there is plenty of great clothes shopping here. I definitely have a weakness for Italian shoes and sweaters. I just want them all! Italians are shaped like me. The aren't gigantic like Americans, so the clothes here actually fit me! And the style definitely suits me, so with that I am constantly distracted by sweaters, shoes and shirts that are just impossible to find in the US. I have serious plans to come here one day with an empty suitcase and stock up. Between that and the food (the food is everything you might expect...times a million), I really need to live here. It has to happen. Just walking down the street from the cheese store, to the bakery, and to the fruit and vegetable store, it's magical. I just need a tiny house with an outdoor oven and a little plot for a garden, and I'm set. I'm going to figure out a way to make it happen because America just isn't doing it for me. Hell, somehow I even love eggplant over here!
The big thing in Orvieto at this time of year is tartufo... truffles. The are bountiful and comparatively cheap. Combine that with porcini (they actually do) and I'm in mushroom heaven (yes, I know that truffles aren't technically mushrooms, but tomatoes aren't technically vegetables, and peanuts aren't technically nuts, so...). I've yet to have any tartufi. That's on tap for dinner tomorrow after some good cycling in the Umbrian countryside. With that, I'm off to bed. I've probably left something out, but I'm sure you're sick of reading this book of a post by now.
The town is elevated on a plateau. Even today, of course, the city and its geography are not except from the passing of time. There is now a technological effort to preserve the town from landslides and erosion.
At some point today someone asked me what time it was. I wanted to say, just look up, or listen for the bells every 15 minutes.
Inside the well (pics above and below).
Piazza della Republica. I guess every city in Italy has one of these now that Italy is a Republic.
Street work is a bit... different here. Every stone is removed by hand. At some point they'll put them all back.
Oh yeah, I also went to this cool theater today. Just like any theater now-a-days, they have a vast array of performances, but opera still is a mainstay. This is Italy afterall.
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