Today we took off out of town for a drive into the Umbrian countryside. I was immediately reminded of how scary Italian drivers are… road rules seem more like ‘guidelines’, speed limits are for to be routinely ignored, indicators are apparently purely decorative and following road line markings appears to be optional! You know, it’s all fun and games until we die in a fiery inferno – but whatever. I opted to sit in the back to avoid the front row seat of the chaos.
First stop we went to Civitia di Bagnoregio to see the ‘old town’. It was close to 11am and 34C by the time we arrived and I had discovered that the only access to the town was via a long, steep pedestrian bridge. So as gorgeous as the lovely ancient town looked, a nearby wine bar won out while the others trekked over to “the city that dies”. This place has a long and very interesting history spanning from the ancient Etruscans and Romans… seriously Google that shit up… there’s simply too much to put in here.
After leaving Bagnoregio, we head towards another ancient town called Orvieto, which again has a history that goes back to the Etruscan and Roman periods, but is reliably documented as being inhabited in the Bronze and Iron ages, which is just phenomenal. Particularly in light of the fact that Australia’s ‘history’ (well, it’s written history), goes all the way back to like, 1788… which for these places probably feels like last month or something. Our first stop in Orvieto was the Pozzo di San Patrizio – or the Well of St Patrick! When we decided to day trip out into the countryside and I looked up Orvieto, this is one of the most fascinating things that leapt out of the Google image search. Amazing walled city on the top of a huge plateau with impressive cliffs all around, and this bizarre 54m deep well dug into the ground. It was built in 1527-37 at the urging of Pope Clement VII, and the well was designed to protect them from a potential siege or disaster (this being the mentality directly after the sack of Rome – look that up too). The well has a double helix stairwell to the bottom and they used to use mules to carry water back up to the top. With 248 steps down and 248 steps back up… it was lucky there was another wine bar nearby! 😀
After the intrepid adventurers came up and rubbed it in that this place was one of the most amazing things they’d ever seen… nice find… we went not far around the corner in Orvieto to go see the cathedral. Now, I love a good church as much as the next person, but at some point when you travel a lot, you find yourself thinking ‘Not another bloody church!’ So I was ready to do the three minute whip through ‘yet another bloody church’ and make haste outside to potter around the town. NO SO! We drove up to the church and I was immediately taken by it’s incredibly elaborate gothic Italian architecture. The Cathedral of Orvieto, also known as the Orvieto Duomo is an absolute masterpiece, both inside and out.
Mostly built in the 12th, 16th and then 19th century, the cathedral is mind-blowingly beautiful. The outer facade was covered with a huge number of elaborate bas-reliefs, sculptures and mosaics that I understand were made by the Sienese artist – Lorenzo Maitani, and the interior is covered in 14-16thC frescoes. Just amazing…
Loads more photos but my internet connection is not playing nice with me. After the Cathedral, we drove around the countryside to a small town called Montecchio where we had lunch at a local restaurant, with a local chef and lots of local produce – massive charcuterie platter, a beef ragout dish, a five cheese pasta tortellini type thing (he had me at gorgonzola!) and Aunty Mary tried the panna cotta for dessert, but made a bad call on the orange marmalade topping bit… not a crowd pleaser. Over all lunch was fantastic and the wines that we washed it all down weren’t too bad either.
After lunch the long dozy drive back to Roma… past the fields of sunflowers and hay bales, past more medieval walled towns high up on plateaus and then one final stop on our tour – to see the mysterious ‘keyhole’. No idea what that was, but we found out when we got there…
It seem the Malta embassy has a garden beside their main buildings, and that garden has a large impressive gate, with a conspicuous keyhole, then when you look through it… you can see three countries – Malta in the garden, Italy in the middle ground, and of course, Vatican City in the background! Nicely lined up Mr Unknown Landscape Gardiner.
After this we did some fly by speed landscape photography of some other famous Rome landmarks – all of which we will be checking out tomorrow, so will get some better photos then – before being dropped off back home… home for the time being, the amazing Trevi Fountain which I am falling more and more in love with every day. Who knew a fountain could have ‘moods’? It’s just gorgeous and I’m seeing more in it, the more we look at it.
Anyway, after this a little shopping for some Murano glass beads – they didn’t have single beads available so I was forced to buy a couple of necklaces with the intention of re-stringing them later into something a bit less ‘this necklace was made with little or no thought’. And of course, obligatory limone gelato. 🙂 It’s been a really long day, and I’m pretty sure that, (for a change), this is the somewhat truncated version of what we got up to! So tired, but so much fun.
Thanks to LaMiaSorellina for all the organizing! Mwah!