Sleep. A wonderful cure for jet lag. The bed is so comfy, piled high with comforters and bedspreads to keep the chill out, I don’t want to get out of it. But after sleeping almost 12 hours – yep – 12 hours, I sort of feel like I need to move. Ed has been up a while – but he also had a good, long sleep and we are both feeling very rested.
We lollygag the morning away, watching it pour down rain on the streets of Orvieto. We had anticipated the bad weather, so figured we’d hang out here until it clears a bit, and then just use of what is remaining on our Orvieto Carta Unica card that we bought last year. We’ve still got a few things we haven’t done and today is a good day to do them. There is also an ulterior motive for staying in town – we get to eat at Enoteca Antica Botega Al Duomo! That is our favorite lunch place – with Pippo, the owner and his family, who creates and serves everything and is so friendly and happy. It is here that we had the best porchetta sandwich ever – so it’s a natural we are going back.
We get lucky with the weather, and it does indeed stop raining just before noon. We head out into town, to discover tons and tons of people meandering through the streets! Oh no! Maybe they just got out of church? The streets are packed – and now we are worried we’ll never be able to get a seat at Pippo’s. We carry on through the wet, crowded streets and turn the corner to the restaurant, to find it virtually empty. And arriving at the restaurant’s door proves that we needn’t have worried, we are the only customers. Big sigh of relief!
We pop in, greet Pippo and plop down in a nice little table beside the deli case. As usual, Pippo is reigning over his domain – although not so cheerily today. He’s definitely not his normal self – and it becomes apparent that he isn’t feeling well, he’s coughing and sniffling – ugh – well – you know what? We’ll just douse ourselves in Purell, this place is that good!
Being nothing but predictable, we order the exact same thing as we did last year – Antipasto Misto, Porchetta panino with wine and beer. And….Pippo, even feeling under the weather, does not fail to deliver. The food is outstanding as usual…
And, per the standard of service, at the end of our meal, we are served with sweet wine and home made biscotti which is so incredibly good I want to buy a whole bag of them!
Wow. It’s so great when something you’ve thought about forever turns out to be just as good as your memories.
The skies have cleared only slightly by the time we leave Pippo, there is still a hint – and more – of rain in the air, but we’re jacketed and umbrella-ed up. We decide to take the shuttle bus to the funicular station for our free ride and then tour the Pozzo di San Patrizio (the ancient well) afterwards. Both included for free with our Carta Unica card. As we wait for the shuttle, an Asian looking group arrives and loiters around, obviously waiting for the shuttle. Uh oh, we’re in defensive mode now. We’re not getting pushed out of line for this shuttle – no way, no how! It’s even starting to rain a little, and instead of retreating under the portico, I’m standing right out there in the weather, waiting for the bus. And good move, because the bus comes and we’re in the prime position to board first. We flash our city cards, and are whisked off down the hill to the funicular in no time.
The funicular is waiting for us when we arrive – we hop aboard and wait for it to leave. It’s a short little lift to the bottom of the tuffa walls, where you can pick up a train going to Rome or Florence at the train station across the street. It’s a great way to travel to and from Orvieto, and we would do that if not for the fact that we want to explore some outlying hill towns, and really need a car. Relying solely on the trains puts a crimp in our style, as you might imagine.
Down we go on the little track, watching the opposing train come at us on the way up.
At the bottom, we sit waiting patiently for the return trip in 15 minutes. It’s a simple, sort of silly but fun, thing to do on a rainy day!
After existing the funicular back up on top of the tuffa walls, we head down to the Pozzo. Again, free with our card, we get our complementary tickets and head down to the entrance to the well. We detour a bit to look out over the valley below the city. The scenery is beautiful in any direction when you are up top here in the city. Totally stunning.
We see a bunch of people lining up for tickets, so we scoot like bunnies into the well to try to be well in advance of the crowd. It’s really wild in here – built in the 1500’s in advance of the Roman siege, this is one of several wells around town designed to hold enough water for all the residents to last out the siege. Designed by Antonio de Sangallo the Younger, the well features a unique double helix staircase of 248 steps that allowed the mules to carry buckets down and up the well at the same time. We follow the in the mules’ footsteps, carefully navigating down the narrow steps, stopping for occasional looks into the bottom of the well itself, as well as up through the opening at the top of the well.
We also spend some time playing around with the windows carved in the well. All original, the windows, while seemingly strange, were added to allow light into the well and alleviate the necessity of any ancillary lighting source.
It’s so quiet and surreal in here (at least until that whole group of loud people come inside), making for a really cool little traipse through history.
We reach the bottom of the well and then get to cross over it on an iron bridge (obviously not original!) to get to the other side of the helix staircase. Now comes the fun – climbing back up the 53 meters we just descended. We take our time, once again stopping for fun and unusual pictures…
…finally arriving at the mouth of the well entrance no worse for wear (until tomorrow that is, when all this stair climbing will definitely take a toll on our poor little muscles).
The shuttle bus delivers us back to the Piazza Duomo, where we decide to walk through the Duomo again. They never stamped our card for this visit last year, so we figure we’ll do it again. They don’t stamp the card again, which is obviously SOP, so we sail in to the church to marvel, once again at its beauty and checkerboard marble pattern. We take more pictures of the nave and different views around the church – just as we have in the past…
…then finish our tour and head back outside in the piazza where the rain has stopped, but the wind has picked up.
We spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around town – visiting the olive wood shop, talking with the owner, buying more olive wood spatulas and serving trays (too beautiful). We wandered into a working ceramic shop as well, and ended up with a beautiful bowl/plate to hang on the wall. Then we people watched our way home, passing by a bunch of Michelangeli carvings attached to the walls of the lanes leading to our apartment.
Dinner tonight is at Trattoria Del Moro Aronn – a quaint little place near the Torre del Moro in the middle of town. Reviews are outstanding, but also say its hard to get a seat without a reservation. We’re hoping on a Sunday night we’ll have luck – and we do. When we arrive, there is only one other table seated, so we have our choice of two tops in the front section of the restaurant. It’s small and lovely (although there are 2 more seating areas in the back of the space) with great paintings of Orvieto on the windows in the vestibule and up high in what looks like a closed in oval window.
The menu is outstanding, and decisions are hard to make! We finally settle on Antipasti (our usual) to share, then Ed breaks bad and has Tagliatelle Cianghale, while I have the roasted lamb. Delish.
The service is fabulous and friendly, and we have a wonderful evening, even if we getting stuffed to the gills with Umbrian meat. All part of the plan!
We meander back to the apartment through streets that feel like home to us now, and spend the rest of the evening happily relaxing on our private and serene little balcony.
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