Bellissimo Orvieto

This morning Emily caught up on some sleep while I attended Palm Sunday mass at Basilica San Clemente. It was so interesting to me to attend a mass spoken in Italian. Surprisingly, there were only about 20 people in attendance, and several of them appeared to be tourists like me. We stood out in the courtyard and collected our "palm" branches (which looked more like olive branches to me) then entered the Basilica behind the priest. In front of the altar there was a raised marble area with two rows of uncomfortable wooden benches on either side, facing each other instead of the altar. It seemed like this is where the medieval noblemen used to sit, while the commoners filled the pews in the rest of the church.

Following the mass in Italian wasn't too difficult. The Gospel was the reading of the Passion, so I was familiar enough with the story to figure it out. I had to say the mass in English in my head to remember where we were at (including all the parts where Dad and I would play music), and I watched the old lady near the front for my cues when to stand, sit, or kneel.

After mass, we packed up, checked out of the hotel and took the Metro to the train station. The lady at the ticket window was fantastically rude to us, and did the absolute bare minimum to help us. We had some questions, but she made it clear she wanted nothing more to do with us. She told us just to take our ticket to the train and get on. Well, that wasn't all we needed. As we found out while en route to Orvieto, we were supposed to write in the date on our ticket before boarding, or pay a 50 Euro fine. Fortunately, the man checking our ticket on board let us off with a warning, but thanks, ticket-window lady, for warning us!

The trip was hectic, as we were feeling very helpless in a foreign land. Our experience at the train station in Rome was (hopefully) the low point of the trip. People were rude and impatient and we just wanted to find a corner and hide in it. Fortunately, Orvieto changed everything.

Some of you have been kind enough to tell us what a good job we're doing in describing our trip. But for Orvieto, I don't think we can write eloquently enough to paint a truthful picture. It was heaven. The Funicolare brought us up the hill to the ancient-looking city full of cobblestone alleyways and views of the valleys of Tuscany. The bus took us on a short trip to the center of town - the Duomo. The cathedral here will probably be the smallest of all the ones we'll visit, but it made the biggest impression. The outside is ornately decorated in green, red, and white marble, and the inside had early rennaissance frescoes along every wall. In a side chapel there was a cloth stained with blood that had miraculously dripped from the Eucharist. After about a half hour inside, we sat at a table just across the piazza and had gelato and a glass of the local Orvieto Classico wine.

Next up was a tour of a couple of ancient Etruscan caves. Cut into the soft volcanic stone under the city, there are about 1,200 different caves on the hill. The first one we saw was originally an Etruscan temple that had since been expanded out to make room for an olive press. We saw the mill on which the olives were squished and the press where the olive oil was then pushed out from the mix. There was also a deep and narrow well, about 90 meters long. It was dug by some brave Etruscan 3000 years ago. He had to climb down and up the full length of the well using rough notches he carved in the side as hand and footholds. The rest of the cave was simply a quarry, dug by hand, for material for making concrete.

The second cave was a series of columbaria's - pidgeon coops. The citizens of Orvieto used to raise homing pidgeons here for food. The coops were just large caves with hundreds of little holes dug out of the sides to create rooms for the pidgeons to sleep. Steep and scary staircases led from the surface down to here.

After the tour we walked around town, trying to avoid the tourist-packed main street, and taking artsy pictures in the back alleyways. We found a couple of shops and got some good souvenir shopping done. We stopped back at the hotel for a nap, then back out again for dinner.

On our way to a restaurant we spotted earlier, we saw an interesting lighted sign for "Il Mago di Oz" - The Wizard of Oz. A very kind old man invited us in and we couldn't believe our eyes. It was a magical little toy store, filled to the brim with mechanical inventions of amazing creativity. Although he didn't speak any English, the Mago could tell how fascinated we were, and proceeded to put on a display. He began flipping switch after switch, and all the ornate creations sprung to life. There were carousels modeled after Coney island that turned around and around, Carnival rides from England that sang songs, and a reproduction of the Ferris wheel in Moscow that lit up. To name only a few! Then he showed us the piece that floored us. It was a tiny stage, and the curtains pulled back to reveal miniature ballerinas dancing to Tchaikovsky's March from the Nutcracker. The set was a faithful reproduction of the real one. The curtain closed and we applauded, but he gestured for us to keep watching. The curtains opened again and the set had changed, and now new ballerinas twirled to the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy. There were four scenes in all, including the Russian Dance and the scene with the lady with the huge dress. Now I need to save up the money to have him build one for our family!

We were almost drunk with joy as we left his place, and it was just a short walk to the restaurant - Trattoria del Grotto. Here we were welcomed warmly by the two old men running the place. We ordered a mixed appetizer of Salami, Bruschetta, and Prosciutto. We decided to be daring with our entree selections. Emily had the Ravioli with Black Truffle Sauce. And I went with something I would only find in Oriveto: Piccione alla Olive - Pidgeon in Olive Sauce! The meals were amazing. Our server was kind enough to recommend a well-paired red wine for us and we sat and talked and tried our best to soak in every aspect of this paradise town. After helpings of Tiramisu and a complimentary shot of Limoncello, we paid our bill and headed back to the hotel. Now the main street was calm and quiet, and we walked home in the dark. Behind us we heard someone call out Signore! We turned to see our server catching up to us. He tried to explain in Italian that they had given us the wrong change at the restaurant, and they actually owed us 10 Euro! We couldn't quite explain our gratitude in English, but we think he got the point. We asked for a photo with him, to help us always remember. Afterwards he gave us hugs and kisses and bid us Buona Notte.

Our hotel was clean and modern and the staff was friendly and helpful. When we informed them of our early morning train, they set about checking bus, Funicolare, and taxi schedules to make sure that we would get there on time. The hotel had the smallest elevator we have ever seen. With both of us in it with our packs on, the hotelier almost couldn't fit in with us. Thank goodness she was a tiny lady!

We set out early in the morning - 6:30 - but realized that no place was open to buy a bus ticket. Orvieto is such a small town anyways, we decided just to walk to the Funicolare and admire the city before dawn. We're glad we did. From there it has been smooth sailing. Right down the side of the hill to the train station, first train to Florence, transfer there (and have the best McDonald's breakfast ever), and now we're on the high speed train to Venice.