On Day 14 of our 17 Days of Best of Italy Tour, we had the option of leaving our wonderful lodging arrangements at Altarocca Wine Resort for a half day of touring Orvieto, the most grand hill town of all of Umbria, with our guide, Anna. We opted to go with Anna for more sightseeing (since I didn't having any spa appointments at the resort). And we're glad we did because the views were well worth it.
The town sits majestically on its throne a thousand feet above the valley floor
and thankfully there were escalators to take us up and an elevator to take us down.
The main attraction in the town is the Duomo
which is known as Italy's liveliest, most colorful, Gothic facade. The four broad marble pillars in the front are carved with biblical scenes that tell the history of the world. Each pillar is topped by a bronze symbol of one of the Evangelists: angel (Matthew), lion (Mark), eagle (John), and ox (Luke). The doors are modern, bronze doors.
Inside, the nave feels spacious and less cluttered than most Italian churches with an optical-illusion that the church is actually larger than it really is.
The architect created the illusion with the nave wider at the back and narrower at the alter.
This is the first church where we saw the alabaster stained glass windows
that warmly lit up the inside highlighting the black-and-white striped stonework.
of the Day of Judgment and Life after Death (painted 1499-1504).
In the bottom left of one painting, is a self-portrait of Signorelli, himself, well-dressed in black with long golden hair. This chapel was his masterpiece and he completed it in five years. Next to him (also in black) is the artist, Fra Angelico, who started the chapel decoration five decades earlier but completed only a small part of it.
During the Renaissance, nakedness symbolized purity. When attitudes changed during the Counter-Reformation, the male figures in Signorelli's frescoes were given sashes to cover their private parts. During a 1982 restoration, most - but not all - of the sashes were removed. A little of that prudishness survives to this day, as those in the heavens were left with their sashes modestly in place.
The stained glass window above the high alter is the painstakingly restored original from the 14th century.
The majestic organ has more than 5,000 pipes.
The marble pieta (statue of Mary holding Jesus' just crucified body) was carved in 1579 by a local artist, Ippolito Scalza, was clearly inspired by Michelangelo's Pieta in Rome inside St. Peter's Bisillica. The exceptional work with four figures was sculpted from one piece of marble.
This cathedral put Orvieto on the map. Two future popes used the town - perched on its easy-to-defend hilltop - as a refuge when their enemies forced them to flee Rome.
Outside and next to the cathedral is the clock-tower built in 1347 for the workers building the cathedral.
This is the beginning of the Via del Duomo, a street lined with shops all kinds of shops and cafes. We strolled through town on our way to see St. Patrick's Well which was on the other end of town and we enjoyed all the charm of Orvieto.
St. Patrick's Well was built because one of the popes that fled from Rome to Orvieto feared that renegade troops would besieged the town so he commissioned a well, which started in 1527 and finished 10 years later. Even today, engineers are impressed by this deep well at 175 feet deep and 45 feet wide designed with a double-helix pattern.
We did not go into it but you could for a entrance fee. There are two spiral stairways that allow an efficient one-way traffic flow. Donkeys and people would balance jugs of water and go up and down the same stairway. At the bottom, was a bridge that people could walk on to scoop up water and then they would start their journey back up the 496 stairs. (The town never was besieged, but supporters believe that the well was worth the cost and labor because of its deterrence value - attackers would think twice about besieging a town with a reliable water source).
All this sightseeing made us hungry so before we headed back for another evening at our winery resort, we stopped into one of the many excellent, local shops and picked up some take-out deli for our lunch to eat back at our villa. I choose a delicious farro salad.
This was our last day before we headed to our final destination, Rome. Fourteen days ago our motto was "All Roads Lead to Rome". Tomorrow, we would finally reach our final destination and we couldn't wait to see this historic, ancient and magnificent city.
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