Orvieto
From Montefalco, we traveled to a vineyard owned by a woman who works some of the time as a Rick Steves tour guide and her family. Wine has been produced on the property since the Etruscans, a civilization that was centered in Tuscany and predated the Romans.
Winery owner Cecilia explaining the wine-making process in her kitchen.
Wine cellar beneath Cecilia's home, hand dug by Etruscans more than two millennia ago, and still in use.
The highlight of the stop was Cecilia demonstrating how wine and food pairing affected the taste of both. We sampled several of her wines and a number of Italian delicacies. Informative and delicious.
View across Cecilia's vineyards towards Orvieto.
Orvieto was wonderful. Dozens of outstanding restaurants, unique shops, layers and layers of history, a stupendous cathedral, and some incredible gelato. It is the quintessential Italian hill town--set so high that you have to take either an elevator or escalator to get from the town parking lot to the town center.
Orvieto's cathedral is huge, way out of proportion to the town itself. It was built on such a scale because the pope visited from time to time. It features a famous mural by Luca Signorelli.
From the hilltop on which Orvieto sits, there are gorgeous views in all directions. On the east end of a town there is a fort that sits high on a bluff overlooking a broad valley where it seems you can see forever.
And as beautiful as the views are above ground, the sights below ground are just as interesting. A local archeologist took us to digs below a church in the center of town where Roman ruins have been found. There is a tour available of underground Orvieto where you can see where people from the town stored their food, hid from barbarians, and lived through many centuries.
Gorgeous scenes everywhere you look
There was also a child's sports festival going on while we were there which added a lot of life to the town.
For such a small town, there was a lot going on. Again, we were visiting on a market day where scores of vendors were selling everything under the sun. Seeing as how we had to take an elevator to get to the top of the hill where the town was located, I have no idea how they got their food, flowers, clothing and other things up and into the town.
Wild boar is a popular dish in Orvieto. We ate at the Trattoria of the Bear and got wild boar ragu. Nearby, we came upon a wild boar butcher shop, above.
We had a great hotel in Orvieto, the Grand Hotel Italia. It was situated right in the middle of everything and we had two balconies with these views.
