Orvieto 2024

19 October 2024

 

Orvieto is a lovely hill town, fairly large, with a huge well-known cathedral.  Most people visit the cathedral while there, but it’s one of those places where one or two visits is enough for me, so this visit I skipped it.  

 

The town is also known for their ceramics, similar to Deruta's but slightly different in style.  There are wonderful ceramic signs scattered around, as well as tons of shops with gorgeous displays.  Definitely photo worthy!

 

It was a chilly and rainy day, but there’s a Saturday market that is always worth a quick walk-through.  I always like the produce section, the displays of fruits and vegs look like brightly colored mosaics with all the colors!  Lots of clothes, kitchen implements, cheese and meat vendors – you name it, someone there sells it.

 

Orvieto is divided into various quarters or neighborhoods, as are most of the towns dating back to Medieval times.  In Orvieto they are referred to as Quartiere, obviously a quarter, like the Latin Quarter in Paris.  I always like the signs for the quarters or neighborhoods, marking the borders.  Such a decorative way to delineate neighborhoods!  I also like having special emblems or symbols for each neighborhood!

 

So I did my usual wandering, occasionally bumping into some of my classmates, or chatting with shopkeepers in my minimal Italian. 

 

At the top of the hill is the cathedral, distinctive with its very dark green and white striped exterior.  This was trendy during a certain time during the Medieval period, though I don’t think it’s a very attractive look.  The Duomo sits in the Piazza del Duomo, and since it’s a very important cathedral due to the miraculous altar cloth, now housed as a relic, the interior is even more ornate than the exterior.  I find it overwhelming.  Marble, mosaic, frescoes, gilt, carved wood.  Kind of too much of a good thing.

 

In one side corner there’s a gorgeous fresco by Luca Signorelli, “The Resurrection of the Flesh.”  Since no one really knows what might happen at the end of days, it’s a very imaginative resurrection.  But the dead who are coming back to life all look thrilled at being in their 20s to 30s, all gorgeous, shapely, and ready to party.

 

Anyway, since I skip the cathedral, there’s a wall at the far side of the cathedral with a great view of the valley below the hill.  I especially like the former monastery turned hotel in the vineyard.  It was a foggy and rainy day, which added to the ethereal quality of the monastery.  Definitely atmospheric!

 

There’s also a clocktower in the piazza with a bell on top.  I don’t know if the bell rings on the hour, but I love the angelic mermaid on the bell.  SO whimsical, and makes such little sense!  LOVE it!  The angel mermaid even has a horn, or trumpet, or possibly a drinking horn.  As I said, absolutely whimsical!

 

One of the traditional meals served all over Orvieto is the porchetta sandwich.  Porchetta is roasted pig, the kind roasted whole so the exterior is crispy, and the sliced meat is served with the fat, on thick bread or a crusty roll.  There’s a great little porchetta shop off to the side just before the Piazza del Duomo, perfect place for an inexpensive meal.  I skipped the pork, though, and had the formaggio e tartufo, also known as cheese with truffle sauce.  Yum, SO good!  With an orangina, the perfect quick lunch on a chilly and rainy day.

 

More wandering, though headed slowly back to our meeting spot for the bus.  I stopped at the Tizian Caffe for a late cappuccino and a mini tart, to warm up and also have access to a restroom.  I got in a quick sketch of my partially eaten crostata and cappuccino, the cups are always so ultra-modern.  The restroom was next door, in a very ornate municipal meeting area.  Very fancy trompe l’oeil and carved ceilings!  (Though for all I know, the carvings are painted and just another part of the trompe l’oeil part.)

 

Finally the rain let up, though it was still a chilly day.  It was closing in on time to meet the bus, so I headed back to the parking area outside the city gate.  There’s an old fort there, built in the 1350s or so.  I didn’t have time to visit it, but got in a few photos of the exterior.

 

It was a nice last day of hill town visiting, sort of slow and easy.  Well, I walked over five miles according to my pedometer, but it still was a casual and relaxing walk hitting my personal highlights in Orvieto.