Orvieto and My Second Attempt to Kill Greg

It's been probably 10 years since we have visited Orvieto, and we wanted to go back again on this trip. One reason to return was to see the Duomo because last time it was covered in scaffolding. So we headed out first thing yesterday.

A little stop along the way

Orvieto is about an hour south of Panicale, and after driving there and figuring out how to get to one of the big parking lots, we bought a ticket for the funiculare that takes people up to the town. Because, of course, the town is built on the top of a huge hill with cliffs all around it to keep enemies away. The funiculare is a fun little bus-like thing that glided us right up.

Our first stop was at St. Patrick's well, a deep, stone structure with stairs all around and built in the 1500's. This was one of those places that has a discount for people over 65, and in this case, it probably was because they knew we would not go down the 250+ steps to the bottom and then back up again!

Looking down the well....

And looking across the well. Notice only some of the windows had bars!

The town or Orvieto is charming and looks somewhat like a smaller version of Florence. There were lots of tourists but it wasn't really crowded. We saw several groups of American teens on tours and heard more English while we were there than we have so far in Italy.

Lunch was at a place I'd heard about but which turned out to be really hard to find. Trattoria dell'Orso was down a small side street away from most of the tourists so it was very quiet. We shared some wonderful minestrone soup and some pasta and headed to the Duomo.

If you only go to Orvieto to see the Duomo, it's worth it. The building is simply beautiful. The front is very ornate and people sit on benches across the piazza and just stare at it. I did this for quite a while.

Of course, my iPhone camera can't do it justice. The gold parts in the front simply sparkle. But it was the sides of the church that captured Greg's interest.

And the inside... also very cool with those stripes everywhere you look.

OK, enough stripes for today. Here's an interesting thing we saw posted on a wall in Orvieto. Yes, really!

There really are Packer fans everywhere!

Too tired to cook, we wandered down the hill to Aldo's Bar for dinner and then walked around the quiet town.

This morning I thought that another hike might be fun, and this time I wanted to walk from Panicale to wherever this sign might take us.

Notice the little man on the sign standing on a mountain and pointing above the trees? Well, that's pretty much what we did. We hiked up a mountain and looked down on our little town, and and it was grueling. Oh, and we both survived again. Looking forward to Florence and Venice where things are flatter!

The view of Panicale when we were only half-way up.

The plan for the day was to drive about 35 minutes away to a restaurant I'd read great things about and we would have a nice lunch. I tried to call and make a reservation, but I got a recording in Italian and didn't know what it meant. Well, now I know. The restaurant has closed. So after driving all that way, we drove back and had a lovely lunch at the little town next to home, Paciano.

It's been a few days since I've posted food pictures, so here are a few from our lunch at La Loggetta.

Pasta pockets with artichoke in a carbonara sauce

Sliced steak with balsamic and pear slices

Spinach with goat cheese and pine nuts

We liked the restaurant enough we might go back tomorrow night which will be our last night here.