Amelia isn’t all that far away from Lugnano, maybe about 20 minutes through little hillsides and shortcuts that make us think we are driving through someone’s driveway. At least it is through the olive groves, so hopefully the road is public! We finally arrive at what has been described as a tiny village (ha! Not likely) and park in the lot outside the gate as planned (finally something going as planned). We’re adept at paying for parking now – looking hopefully for that sign that says parking is free from 13:00 to 15:00. Not so lucky here today, it’s pay all the time, but it’s only 80 Euro cents per hour, so no big deal.
The information we had says that the TI is outside the gates, but we see no sign of a TI anywhere and decide to just head into the city and figure it out. As it turns out the TI is right next to the Church of San Francisco, which is where we were headed. A lovely lady gives us a map and tells us the cisterns are closed (darn it) as well as the archeological museum (double darn). They are only open on the weekend – and sadly, this is Friday. We specifically came today so that we could avoid the predicted bad weather, so, that means just a walking exploration of the ancient town.
First stop is the church, which is incredibly beautiful with its travertine exterior and totally ornate compared to the church in Lugnano. More marble, more frescoes and a hauntingly beautiful semi-restored fresco of Jesus in a lobby area next to the front door.
The artwork is incredible as well with lots of paintings and depictions of saints around the nave. I’m particularly drawn to the detailed wood carvings on the pulpit and the altar. They are simply marvelous.
Ed is enamored with the crypts of the previous priests – as you can tell by his photos.
Once finished with the church, we decide to just take a stroll around the village, up to the Duomo, then back to find lunch. It’s a nice little village, with not much activity and not much in the way of automobile traffic, so walking around the narrow lanes is easy, if not up hill. We follow the directional signs to the outer part of the city along the walls for a beautiful viewpoint across the valley…
..then follow more signs up…and up….and up to get to the Duomo. Great scenery, but it is a trek, and halfway through Ed wants to know why people build this way! Because they can, and it was the 12th century and they liked to torture people, that’s why!
Sheesh. We finally make it to the top, but not without a lot of sweat and tears (fortunately no blood this time). Once at the pinnacle to say we’re underwhelmed would probably be an overstatement. Yeah, there’s a great tower up there, but that’s about all, because we’re sort of done with cathedrals and churches for now.
We’re tired and hungry, so off we go in search of lunch. I have 3 restaurants picked out, one that is pretty close to the “pinnacle” up here, so we follow our trusty GPS in the direction of the address. It keeps changing the times and directions and thoroughly frustrating us, until we stop and ask a lovely gentleman, who immediately says “Do you speak English?” Phew – I could have managed, but thank you! He directs us through the Via degli Archi (a cool lane that is covered with a bunch of different arches that we were not about to stop to take photos of) and says it should be on the left. Well, it was, and it was long ago closed. Come on TripAdvisor! really! What good is the internet if the info is wrong. LOL. Plan B. I run into a Western Union store and ask for local restaurants. The sweet guy inside gives me a card for a restaurant we saw way back down by the church. He says this is the nearest one. Oh crap. But he also tells us not to sit at the tables outside the restaurant because they belong to someone else. He reiterates this twice, so it is obviously important.
Ok, down we go. And down. And down. And finally we arrive at DentrAmelia, a cute very new looking (only 1 year old) pizza place. As it appears the only game in town – we’re game. We are the only ones there, and the server doesn’t speak a word of English, but we make it through pretty well actually. He tells us there is no pizza for lunch – ok – well, that works better for us anyway because we don’t necessarily want pizza. We order two antipasti to share and he brings out some awesome fresh bread that I think he says they made specially for us in their big oven (the wood fired oven they don’t fire up until dinner?). Don’t know, but I’m going with it.
The plates arrive and they are perfect for us. A great selection of meats and cheeses and some bruschetta that is wonderful. Beer and wine – and water – and we are good to go.
Back to the car, fortunately, again, all downhill, and we are back to Orvieto in no time.
After down time (I napped), we head out for dinner at Pub Al Tempio Etrusco. They were so sweet to us the other night, we wanted to come back and eat there. The same sweet server was there and greeted us with a great big “Hi!” We proceeded to sit at the back of the restaurant – down the stairs and away from the TV – and ordered our wine and beer, then decided on chicken wings (gotta try them out in Italy) and the Etruscan pizza.
The decor of this place is really nice. The walls are all painted with all sorts of artwork, all revolving around pizza and beer, and bricks for the oven, and its just nice and cozy and very well done. They sort of tout themselves as a British pub (the table cloths have all sorts of British sayings and double decker buses, etc.), but its really a cross between a pub and and Italian pizzeria, very nicely done.
We settle in with our beverages and just hang out until the food arrives. Both dishes were a pleasant surprise. The chicken wings were in a spicy marinara/tomato sauce. And the pizza, oh the pizza! It had calzones built into it. All the sausage, pepperoni, sauce and cheese were in the little wrapped up calzones on the sides, with a little bit of plain pizza in the middle. So adorable, and so darn good! Great choice for a really different meal.
Another night ends happily as we make our way back to the apartment to spend the rest of the night reading, blogging and generally just hanging around.
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