Montepulciano to Orvieto – Day 9 – Saturday
I got up at my usual hour, even though it was Saturday,
because I had a complicated day of traveling ahead. Bus schedules on weekends and holidays in
Italy are limited and seem to be a secret from even the locals. Fiorella thought there was a bus to Chiusi at
9:30. She gave me a ride to the bus
station at 9:00. It turned out that
there wasn’t a bus until 10:00. This bus
was scheduled to arrive at the Chiusi station at 10:50. My train was supposed to leave at 10:59. This sounded pretty tight, but I already had
my train ticket, so figured I could make it if the bus wasn’t late. Few people were travelling at that hour, so
the bus made good time until we got to Chiusi and got stuck in traffic. If I had known where to go, I would have
gotten out and made a dash for it, but I had no idea where to find the station
or how far it might be, so I stayed in my seat and fretted.
We arrived at the station at 10:57. My fellow travelers and I made a dash for the
platform. I didn’t even have time to
check which platform I wanted. I just
followed the other runners. Fortunately,
the train was “in ritardo.” I
encountered my friend, Lucy, on the platform.
She was leaving and was taking the train to Rome. It was nice to see her and to have someone to
chat with on the ride to Orvieto. I was
sorry to part from her, but hope to see her back in the US, since she doesn’t
live too far from me. The train was a
regional one and we were in the second class car. We had no trouble finding seats and it wasn’t
bad at all for a short journey.
Honestly, I had been more crowded in first class on the way from Milan.
 |
| Umbrian Countryside |
I left the train at the Orvieto station. I had planned to go to Bagnoregio and Civita
on Sunday, but realized that bus service on Easter Sunday might well be
impossible. I decided to go to
Bagnoregio straight from the Orvieto station.
I bought round trip bus tickets from the clerk at the convenience store
in the station and proceeded to wait. Of
course, there was no posted schedule. My
guidebook said there was usually a bus at 12:45. It was noon, so I waited and hoped for the
best. I got lucky. It rained a bit while I was waiting, but
there was a shelter.
 |
| Umbrian Vineyard |
The bus ride took about an hour, but it was interesting to
drive through the Umbrian countryside.
Umbria is different from Tuscany.
The terrain is more rugged and there are more trees. It doesn’t look as manicured, but it is still
green and scenic at this time of year.
Many houses have colorful flowers planted in window boxes and they
looked cheerful even on a wet, gloomy day.
The passengers on the bus were about half locals and half tourists going
to Bagnoregio.
We arrived in Bagnoregio sometime after 1:30. The shuttle bus that runs from the bus
station to the base of the bridge to Civita takes a break between 1:00 and
3:30. As there was no luggage storage in
Bagnoregio, I was forced to carry my luggage all the way to Civita. Fortunately, I had foreseen this circumstance
and packed light. I had only a shoulder
bag, but it was heavier than I would have liked because of the computer,
guidebook and indispensable dictionary.
Bagnoregio sprawls along the top of a ridge. The bus station in slightly below the town on
one end and Civita is about a mile away across a bridge that connects to the
far end of Bagnoregio. Bagnoregio is not
particularly interesting, but, being on top of a mesa, there are some nice
vistas of the surrounding countryside. I
met a darling orange cat that insisted I pet him. I stopped and scratched him for a bit. He was a younger version of my own cat,
Pumpkin, so it was good to get my cat fix.
Leaving my cat behind is one of the hardest things about traveling. I have always thought that it should be
possible to get a hotel room that comes with a cat.
 |
| Civita |
Civita is called the, “city that died.” The last of the original inhabitants is now
too frail to make the trek across the bridge.
Today, it is occupied solely by people involved in tourism. Civita was a major Estruscan city and there
is conjecture that it was a sort of Estruscan Mecca. Bagnoregio was originally a suburb of Civita
and the two were once connected. Erosion
and a major earthquake in 1695 served to strand Civita on its own pinnacle of
tufa. Formerly, there was a donkey path
across the saddle, but that was damaged by bombs during WWII. The current pedestrian viaduct was built in
1966.
Civita is noticeably older than the other hill towns I have
visited. Many of the buildings date back
to the 12th and 13th centuries. The entrance to the town is through a cut in
the rock that was carved by the Etruscans 2,500 years ago. Today, the trench through the rock is crowned
by a 12th century Romanesque archway. The passage made a good place for tourists to
huddle during cloudbursts.
 |
| Bridge to Civita |
 |
| Palace Facade |
Having traveled hard all day, I was hungry after lugging my
bag across the bridge and up the steep path to Civita. The rain held off long enough for me to sit
outside and eat a sandwich of prosciutto and cheese and enjoy a glass of
proseco. The café was right on the plaza
and I could see most of Civita from there.
There isn’t a whole lot in Civita, but highlights include the façade of
a renaissance palace whose aperatures now lead to thin air, a small museum
displaying ancient olive and wine presses in caverns carved from the tufa and a
chapel located in a cave that might once have been an Estruscan tomb. Civita is essentially an island in the
sky. The views are incredible. A profusion of spring flowers made the little
city one of the most romantic places I have ever seen.
 |
| Wisteria and Garden in Civita |
As gorgeous as Civita is, there is not a lot to do
there. After I had seen the sights, it
started to thunder and sprinkle and I decided to make a dash across the bridge
before the weather deteriorated further.
It sprinkled all the way back to the bus station, but the deluge didn’t
begin until an hour or so before the bus arrived. I had been waiting under an overhanging
balcony, but when the sky opened up, I made a dash for an outdoor coffee bar
with covered seating. I had a cappuccino
and waited for the rain to stop. When it
finally abated somewhat, I returned to the bus stop. Considering that Civita is one of the major
tourist destinations in Umbria, the bus stop is quite unimpressive. It is merely a square painted on the pavement
behind someone’s garage. There are a
couple of small shelters without seats across the road, but they had
motorcycles parked in them on this rainy day.
It started to pour again just before the bus arrived and we
had a wet journey back to Orvieto. It
was the last bus of the day and was fairly full. In Orvieto, sheets of rain were falling. I dashed back to the convenience store to buy
a Carta Unica, a ticket that includes entrance to all the major sights in
Orvieto, restaurant discounts and admission to the funicular that takes one
from the train station below the city to the top of the bluff where Orvieto is
located. The funicular runs up the steep
side of the rock outcropping and finally through a passage carved from the
stone one the wall becomes vertical.
Most ancient cities in the region are on the top of rock outcroppings,
but Orvieto is unique in that the rock is vertical for long stretches and forms
a natural wall.
A major thunderstorm was still raging when I reached the
top, so I made a dash for a waiting shuttle bus and rode that to the Plaza del
Duomo (cathedral.) Tourists were huddled
in every doorway. I made a dash for the
nearest doorway to consult my map and found myself in the midst of a German tour
group. The guide did her best to herd me
onto their bus, but I managed to escape.
After orienting myself, I made a dash across the plaza just as it began
to hail fiercely. The streets were
torrents of water. I had several blocks
to go through a labyrinth of medieval stone alleyways and I arrived at my
lodgings soaked to the skin.
 |
| My Room at B&B Valentina |
It had been difficult to find an available room in the old
section of Orvieto for Easter weekend and I had been forced to splurge on a
double room in the B&B Valentina.
This turned out to be very fortunate because when the friendly staff
showed me to my chamber and I squished inside, I was greeted with a warm room
with plenty of light, an actual king sized bed, plenty of light (!) and a
heater and heated towel rack on which to dry my dripping clothes. Everything I owned was wet. My poor shoulder bag was not protected by my
tiny travel umbrella. I was able to turn
up the heat, hang out my clothes and huddle under the down comforter until my
clothes dried enough to wear them again.
B&B Valentina also has functional wifi in the rooms. I definitely give this place four stars. The room is furnished with lovely antiques,
the linens are exquisite and, despite its location in a renaissance building,
the rooms are spacious and offer every modern convenience.
By 9:00 pm, I had finally dried out enough to dress and go
in search of dinner. The rain had
stopped and the stars were out. Pizzeria
Charlie had been recommended to me and was fairly close, so I decided to give
that a try. It was packed and I had to
wait for a table. The host was very
affable and brought me a chair. When I
was finally shown to a table, I was seated next to a noisy party of 30 or 40
people celebrating some special occasion with large volumes of beer. It didn’t matter whether I could speak
Italian or not because the waitress and I couldn’t hear each other anyway. We managed somehow and I enjoyed a crispy
pizza Margherita for dinner. I sat
reading the history of Italy and watching the partiers carry on. What a contrast to my wretched state upon
arrival!
Orvieto – Day 10 – Easter Sunday
 |
| Duomo in Orvieto |
Woke up early, but couldn’t bring myself to hurry this
morning. Breakfast arrived about 8:30
and I sat and munched fresh baguette and drank coffee while I worked on my
blog. About 11:00 I determined it wasn’t
raining and decided I’d better go out and take advantage of the break in the
weather. I wanted to visit the Duomo,
but there was an Easter service going on.
I did stand in the back of the church for a while to listen to the
choir.
 |
| St. Patrick's Well |
 |
| Fortress in Orvieto |
Having determined that the Duomo was busy and there wasn’t a
tour of the Orvieto underground available in English until 3:15, I set off to
walk down the hill the ruined fortress at the other end of town. It was a nice walk and the fortress offered
spectacular Umbrian views. I climbed all
496 steps down to the bottom of St. Patrick’s well. The well is a feat of engineering built in
the 16th century to discourage enemies from besieging the town. Stairs run up and down in a double helix so
that people and donkeys heading down did not have to share the path with
traffic trekking back up. The bottom of
the well was still filled with clear water.
I’m sure that I will feel those stairs tomorrow. I still had a long uphill walk to get back to
the Plaza Duomo. I stopped along the way
to get an Iskender kebap at a little shop on the Corso Cavour. I swear the Iskender kebap was made out of
pork. Only in Italy! The meat may not have been authentic, but the
pide had just come out of the oven and was delectable. It tasted just like the bread I got fresh from
the communal oven in a village in Turkey.
After lunch, I had a couple of hours to kill before my tour,
so I visited the several museums associated with the Duomo. The Duomo began as a simple design, was
redecorated in the baroque style and then restored to its original simplicity in
the 18th century. All the art
that was removed at that time is now in the museum. I learned a few things today. Painters take note: If you want your work to
last, paint on canvas. After 600 years
or so, paint tends to flake off wooden panels and bugs get to the wood. Do not work in fresco, especially in an
earthquake prone area. Frescos are too
easy to paint over, anyway. Sculptors,
work in marble if you want your work to last.
Bugs tend to get to wood over time and ceramics get broken. Beware, however, that any ugly creations or
pieces you leave unfinished will also be around for centuries.
 |
| Olive Press in Orvieto Underground |
It started to rain heavily while I was in the museums. I thought that the tour of the underground
would be a good thing to do on a rainy day, but it turned out the trip to the
entrance of the caves involved a long trek through the rain. The caves were interesting, though. The excavations were started in Etruscan
times and the Etruscan caves were neatly finished with vaulted ceilings. More modern caves were strictly utilitarian,
with no such aesthetic considerations.
Caves were used for the pressing of oil because olives were harvested
and pressed during the winter months.
Oil flows more freely when the temperature is warm, so they pressed the
oil in the caves where the temperature was always moderate.
 |
| Dovecote Under Orvieto |
Many caves were the result of mining the stone to make
cement. Mining the stone was eventually
stopped in the 19th century because the government feared the city
might collapse into the mine shafts.
Many homes near the edge of the cliffs had dovecotes excavated under
their homes where the pigeons could access the cave through a window carved in
the outer cliff wall. These dovecotes
had many niches carved in the walls to accommodate nests. Pigeon is still a common dish in
Orvieto. The practice of excavating dovecotes under the houses was finally forbidden by the pope in the 18th century because he feared that smugglers could sneak into the city through the openings and avoid paying taxes at the approved gates. One of the last caves we
visited was carved from the rock to serve as a bomb shelter during WWII. While Orvieto itself was not shelled because
of the cathedral, the lower town was bombed because of the railway line. People living below took shelter in the stone
above.
It was still raining when the tour was over, so I ducked
into the cathedral. The cathedral in
Orvieto is notable in the entire structure is constructed of alternate bands of
black and white stone. The arcades are
exceptionally tall and the windows are fenestrated with alabaster, all of which
serve to make the church exceptionally light and airy, even on a gloomy
day. The chapel of San Brizio, painted
by Signorelli, is not to be missed. The
palette he used glows with warm colors, making the chapel appear luminous, an
effect that is further enhanced with tasteful electric lighting. In sharp contrast is the older chapel on the
opposite arm of the transept, which is quite dark and reflects an earlier, less realistic, style
of painting.
 |
| View of Orvieto from Torre del Moro |
By this time, I was getting cold and damp and my hotel room
was sounding good. The Torre del Moro
was about halfway home and I ducked in there to get out of the rain for a bit
and climbed another 173 steps up to the top of the clock tower. The bells started to ring just as I stepped
out onto the observation platform. They
were deafening. Even though it was
pouring, I couldn’t resist peering out at the panoramic views and taking a
couple of photo of the rooftops of Orvieto.
After descending the tower, I made the final dash to my hotel and my
comfy room. Sure wish I could take this
mattress home with me to Montepulciano.
A few hours later, once the rain had passed, I took a walk
along the lamplit ramparts of the city.
It was pretty and atmospheric. I
seemed to be the only person alive in Orvieto.
I ate a very forgettable dinner of lousy lasagna at a “tavola calda”
(steam table restaurant) and returned to my room.
Orvieto to Montepulciano – Day 11 – Easter Monday (Yes, the
Monday after Easter is a Holiday in Italy.)
Checkout time was 10:30, so I got up early to pack. I wanted to walk the path that goes around
the base of the cliffs, but I knew that it could be difficult to get home on a
holiday, so I wanted to leave plenty of time.
My breakfast arrived about 8:15 and I was out of the hotel by 9:00. Valentina let me leave my bag in her quarters
while I went walking.
It was thankfully not raining, but was very cold and windy
except on the leeward side of the cliff.
Orvieto sits on an exceptionally tall block of tufa, so there are cliffs
on all sides of the city. Originally, I
had intended to follow Rick Steves’ suggestion of descending to the path
(called la Rupe) from Plaza Marconi near the Duomo, walking three quarters of
the way around the city and then riding the escalator back up from the tour bus
parking lot at Campo della Fiera. I
walked across the short axis of the city to get to Plaza Marconi, only to find
that the pathway down to the Rupe was closed.
I had to walk back to the Porta Romana to get out of the city and ended
up at the Campo della Fiera entrance to the path.
 |
| Fortress from Below the Wall |
The walk around the city was very pleasant. I was very much in nature. I could hear the birds singing and the bees
buzzing. I got to see an actual
hedgehog. The path passed some Etruscan
tombs at about the halfway point. Having
seen hundreds of tombs in Turkey, I didn’t feel the need to make the side trip
to visit them, but I got a good view from above and took some pictures. It was a pretty spot with lots of vivid green
grass and flowering trees. The Etruscans
had built a very orderly cemetery that actually looked quite modern. The path climbed up and down quite steeply
and the circuit was a good workout. I
reentered the city by the Porta Maggiore and climbed up the steep street rather
than taking the escalator.
 |
| Etruscan Tombs |
The walk had taken longer than I expected (too many stops to
read placards and take pictures.) My train left at 12:31. I went back to Valentina’s to collect my bag
and caught a minibus to the funicular.
Everyone and his brother packed into that funicular. We were packed so tightly that the woman in
front of me leaned her entire weight against me all the way down. There was no way I could lean over to pick up
my bag until 90% of the people had exited the car. I made it to the train without incident.
 |
| View from Orvieto |
The train ride from Orvieto to Chiusi is only two stops
along the Firenze to Roma line. It takes
about half an hour. I left the train at
Chiusi and wandered about, trying to determine whether or not the buses were
running. It was pretty desolate around
there. The fact that the tobacconist who
sells the tickets was closed was a bad sign.
I drifted out to the bus stop and noticed an older man peering at the
schedule. The schedule was completely
silent on the subject of Sundays and holidays.
As it turns out, this is because the buses do not run then. I asked the man if there were buses that day
and he told me there were not. He
suggested that I take the Siena line to the Montepulciano station. Montepulciano Stazione is actually a separate
town about six miles from Montepulciano, but I figured a taxi would be cheaper
from there. I didn’t really want to
shell out another 45 Euros for a taxi from Chiusi.
I had to wait a few hours for the train, so I had some pizza
and then read for a while. Getting to
Montepulciano Stazione was uneventful. I
had hoped there might be other travelers with whom to share a taxi, but I was
the only person who departed the train there.
The station was deserted. There
were no taxis. My guidebook said it was
5 miles from Montepulciano Stazione to Montepulciano, so I decided to try
walking. I walked about a mile and then
came to a road sign that indicated it was still 9K to Montepulciano. I started to doubt I was going to make it at
that point, but decided to keep walking at least until I got to some
recognizable location before I called for a ride. The walk through the countryside was gorgeous. I walked through vineyards and olive
groves. Flowers bloomed everywhere. The sun afternoon sunshine was warm on my
face and it was a lovely time to walk. The
experience would have been entirely pleasant if I hadn’t been lugging my
overnight bag.
There is a big regional hospital about halfway to Montepulciano and I started to see signs for that. I thought that there might be taxis at the hospital, so I headed there. By the time I got to the hospital, the steeps hills, heavy bag and earlier walk around Orvieto had conspired to do me in. I called my friend, Savannah, and she came and rescued me. Fiorella made me a tasty steak dinner and I went straight to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment