Today we are going to see some hills and some towns.

Our first stop is Oriveto, about 45 minutes from Civita. Except for Michael we have all been there before, but it's one of the most beautiful and entertaining hill towns in Italy. It's built on top of a plateau of tufa rock (a volcanic rock which is pretty soft and erodes easily. Which it has done, leaving this tremendous plateau and a Arizona/New Mexico topography...except green. not desert) and the approach is amazing. It sits up on the top like a crown. While you can drive to the top, there is more parking down below. On one side there is a funicular (which Franco had a part in developing) and on the other an elevator and a series of escalators through the rock to the surface. We take the scale mobile (moving stairs) and arrive in the town. We start walking to the main piazza and the duomo. It really is a classic little town. Small streets, great views, laundry hanging from windows, arches....the whole experience. then we turn a corner and there is the duomo.

Orvieto must have been a prosperous place 600 years ago, because the duomo is exceptional. It's very large and made of alternating horizontal stripes of dark and light tufa brick. The facade has mosaics and gold and would be even more impressive, if it weren't covered by scaffolding. It is 'in restauro'. But we can still go inside. there are 5 columns on each side of the main space, leading towards the altar. Apparently there is some trick of perspective, where the capital of each column gets lower as it gets closer to the altar, making you think you are closer than you really are. I can't figure it out...We go into the side chapel, where there is an incredibly elaborate series of frescoes covering every surface from floor to ceiling and including the ceiling. No art history lesson today...I can't remember who did them and what the significance is. I do remember that the winged demons have eyes that shoot blood red lasers. It's very odd.

I had wanted to take the underground Orvieto tour the last time I was here, but had missed it. Today, the timing is perfect. We go fro a short walk through town, checking out the pottery stores that line the main street. Mom has purchased plates from the same shop every time she has come to Orvieto. She buys some more. Michael and I realize we have no gifts, so we start looking, but don't by anything. We make our way to a hotel that dad sends clients to and he gets a tour. They have an air conditioned lobby and a toilet, so I'm happy. It's another really hot day.

So it's a good thing we're going underground. The tour starts from the piazza and we head down a walkway on the side of the town that zig zags down the cliff. Eventually we head into a cave. it turns out that for centuries the residents of Orvieto (starting with the Etruscans) dug wells, tunnels and caves in the plateau. At first they were mining for rock to build walls and houses, then they start using the space to make olive oil (there are several mill stones in the cave), and finally they would use the tunnels as hideouts from invaders. At some point the people realized that they needed food in the caves, so they built thousands of square niches in the walls and small windows to the outside. Pigeons inhabited the niches, flew through the windows to eat and returned to nest. When the residents needed food during a siege, they went into the caves, captured some pigeons and there was lunch. There are hundreds or thousands of caves, all man made, and most of the houses on the surface had a tunnel to get to the caves. Now they are perfect wine cellars. Eventually a Pope needing to solve his pesky Orvieto problem, decreed that the windows be sealed, ending the pigeon nests and any resistance from Orvieto. The tour was pretty good, but not for the claustrophobic or for people who don't like narrow tiny staircases underground where you can't see and it's dark. Like say my mother. and my brother. I think they were less enamored with it then me. I thought it was pretty cool (literally and figuratively). I actually thought that it was going to be more about the layers of civilization and the growth of the town, but I will keep looking for that tour.

We had a light lunch in the square, panini and a salad. The salads have all been incredible. Perfectly fresh ingredients every time. I don't know why we can't have lettuce and tomatoes like this is Washington.
Then a gelato, fragola and melone for me. One last look through the shops and even I am seduced into buying gifts...How I will get this stuff on the plane is going to be a trick.

We take the elevator back down and head towards our next goal, Civita Bagnoregio. Anyone who has read a Rick Steves guidebook to Italy will know about this place. the old part of town, Civita, sits high up, isolated on a tiny tufa bluff. There are 15 residents and the only way in or out for hundreds of years was across a footbridge over a tiny outcropping to the newer town, Bagnoregio. An earthquake destroyed the bridge 400 years ago, bombing in WWII destroyed it 60 years ago and only in 1965 was a more 'permanent walkway built. It's pretty spectacular.
You take a 15 minute, one km walk across a narrow walkway that rises steeply up over empty space to meet the entrance to the town. Then up the Etruscan road, through a Roman gate and into the city, circa 1200.
There is nothing to do in Civita. There's is a church and a bar and a small square. And now that Rick Steve's has put it on the map, a couple of restaurants and hotels. But pretty much it's a ruin with some houses that are being restored. Needless to say there are no cars. We walked around town, looked at where the big houses used to be, before the tufa gave way and they crashed the several hundred feet to the valley floor, explored every lane in town and sat. I should say that we started with a lot of sitting, the walkway is very, very steep. it's worth a visit and on this day there were not too many tourists and we were the only Americans.

Back down and to the car. A short scenic ride back to the hotel and it's nap time for me.

For dinner we go back to the restaurant at the hotel (Il Scuderia-the
stables) We are greeted as returning friends by Sergio. A whole group of French tourists are staying at the hotel and also dining there, but we squeeze in and get the full sit down treatment. Sergio remembers what we had the day before and sets us up with more gnocchi. this time mom and Michael have the sausage and cheese and dad has the pomodoro. I have a type of pasta that I have yet to catch the name of (no written menus!!), but it means priests stranglers...they are thick short spaghetti strands made with farina and without eggs. Very dense....It comes with a amitrici'anna sauce, tomatoes, pancetta and hot peppers The gnocchi are again spectacular and my pasta is merely outstanding. For the secondi, Dad and I both have bacala (salt cod) done two ways, in a lemon and oil sauce and with tomatoes, potatoes and onions. They are both excellent.
Mom has a meat dish..I think it was veal and Michael has rabbit with parmigiano slices, arucola, and balsamic vinegar. Terrific.... Dessert is confusing. We don't quite get what sergio is offering us, but what comes out is great. A plate of zabaglione with warm strawberries.
It's almost too sweet, but not. it tastes like liquid cotton candy. A lemon semifreddo that is tangy and refreshing and profiteroles...all delicious. What a shock.

We roll out and I head straight to bed.

Tomorrow: Another wedding?