10/27–Do nothing day in Orvieto

We have nothing planned for today, other than Orvieto wandering.  The weather is supposed to be really bad – windy, rainy, thunderstorms – so we figure its a good day to just stay in town and walk between the raindrops.  We don’t sleep as late today (thankfully!) so we are up and out before 10am.  There is a Saturday market here, so we head over there, and peruse all the fruit, veggies and charcuterie offerings – as well as the dirt cheap clothing.  Once again – I’m just not in the shopping mood – otherwise a killing is to be made here.  But just wandering around is fine by us.

We end up taking a stroll to the northside of Orvieto, where there is a lovely overlook and a park that appears to run the length of the city walls to the East.  We’ve never been here – and no we’re a little bummed we didn’t know about it – it doesn’t appear on any maps – not even the google maps.  It would have been a fabulous place to walk in the mornings.  Darn it.  Well, at least we found it now, and can take a few landscape photos while we’re here.

Wandering back toward the center of town, we decide to finally conquer the Torre del Morro. We’ve had the tickets on the Orvieto card for 2 years now but for various reasons have not made the trek up the 250+ stairs.  But today? Why not – it’s not the prettiest day, but what the heck.  We use our Orvieto card (even though it seems to have expired a year ago…um…maybe not?) and breeze through the ticket booth and up the stairs. We actually cheated and took the elevator up to the “2nd” floor (which doesn’t really cut out too many stairs, but still) and then hiked our way up and up and up.  Phew. that was a stair master work out for real!  There were interesting things on the way up though – you could see where the old steps had been hung/laid into the walls – and there were all sorts of battlement type window cuts.  Kept us occupied as we climbed and climbed and climbed.

Once at the top, you really do get a fantastic 360 degree view of the city. Even in the cloudy, threatening skies it is amazing.  We stayed up top for a long time, enjoying the cool breeze (ok, sort of gale force breeze) and the beautiful scenery.

Glad we made the effort!  Once down to ground level, we skirt the crowds and head to the Duomo, hoping our cards will work again there. They’ve set up a new ticketing/entrance system which is all electronic. Previously, a human being had to look at your ticket and let you in. Now it’s a scanner.  The four people in front of us scanned their tickets and the machine made a beeping sound when giving them access. We scanned our Orvieto cards and the machine made a “booping” sound – I didn’t think it would give us access but the gate clicked and we were in.  Phew.  The docent gave us our brochure (of course) and we wandered in, took a seat and just watched the tourists go by.  We do love this cathedral, it’s beautiful with its two toned marble and painted nave.  We took the requisite pictures..

…including me with goofy heart glasses and cat stickers (thanks Samsung for giving us goofy things to play with in our photos. Like we needed more reasons to take pictures!)..

On our way out, we stopped to take pix of some of the frescoes in varying stages of decay.  They are actually quite nice, and make for fantastic photos.

Then it is finally on to Pippo’s – Antica Bottega Al Duomo – our favorite lunch spot in Orvieto.  We are early – even though we were trying hard to wait.  It is only a little after 11, but while we are the first customers, everyone still treats us so well – they are such nice people there.  Unfortunately Pippo is not in today – and we never got a chance to find out why. But the service can’t be beat, and while they don’t serve us bruschetta with the antipasto mixto any longer, it is still fantastic, as is the Porchetta panino – and they do still give us the sweet wine and biscotti as a dolci.  Yum.

Hey, its more than we need as is, so we are happy and sated.  We wander around a bit after lunch, just walking off the bread.  We visit the pottery studio where we bought the plate with flowers last year and have a little chat with the potter who shows me the kiln and the glaze she uses.  She is so talented, I would love to paint like that. It gives me a goal at least.

Then back to the apartment for the afternoon to blog and just generally hang out. We were expecting rain – which never came, but still, catching up on the blog is worth it since we’ve really got nothing much else to accomplish today. 

Dinner is a light affair – we just want antipasto – so we go to Bottega Vera which is right on Via Duomo. They offer wine tastings – which I never do – but for some reason tonight I order it.  Nice to try different wines, but I would have been better off with a single glass of the Orvieto classico.  Ah well, I knew better.  But the antipasto is fantastic – tourist place or not (and really, we were the only people there speaking English, so we don’t know how touristy it really was – at least at night).  The platter was huge, and filled with awesome meats and cheeses and this honey that was like nothing we’d ever tasted.  Extremely well done.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Blue Bar, where Anthony was actually closing.  He had his son and girlfriend with him, and there wasn’t any business, so they decided to make it an early night.  We chatted for a bit, playing with Leonardo (he had straws he was making into some sort of musical instrument, then playing air drum for us because he is his dad’s drummer), then said goodbye so they could actually leave and get home.

We decided to stop for a night cap at the little bar/enoteca where we had a drink earlier in the week. It’s a cute teeny place, but we managed to take one of the inside tables to avoid the worst of the wind – and the rain as it turned out.  A glass of wine and beer suddenly came with this great focaccia bread and ham sandwich.  So good – and unexpected – and our midnight snack (at 8pm).

The rain stopped as quickly as it started, and we were able to make it back through the streets relatively dry.  A stop at the garage to arrange the suitcases, and then back to the apartment.  Four days in Orvieto have flown by, and tomorrow we are off to our new home on the Azamara Pursuit.