I too a train down to Orvieto today with 3 other girls in the program. Its a really old (dating back to Etruscan times) town up on a hilltop. I've been before but knew it was a nice, pretty place to relax and wander, so I was happy to go back. However, after several days of exploring Florence on my own, travelling with other people (especiially ones I don't really know) was a bit annoying. We saw a few sites, but then these girls just didn't know how to wander medieval streets and discover things. Without a destination, they were a little lost. So we ended up not seeing a lot of the tiny town and going back to the train station much earlier than we needed too. Tomorrow, I'm going solo again.
We did see a couple neat things I don't think the family had done: "Orvieto Underground". This was a tour of underground caves which open up on the sides of the cliff and were originally Etruscan and then which the rich people in the Middle Ages used to catch pigeons (to eat).
(They carved the holes in the walls to encourage the pigeons to nest)
Then we went to a Roman well, which was really deep, and has a double staircase circling it, so you go down one side and climb back up another. Pretty fun.
4 comments:
when you see how advanced and complicated some of the Roman engineering was, you just marvel that they managed to blow it all.
Wasn't Orvieto the town with the torture museum?
The torture museum was in San Gimignano, I think. At least, not here.
that well is huge! I bet it goes all the way to china.
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