Orvieto

This week was considerably less crazy than the last month. Everyone had a five day weekend but me, so most everyone traveled leaving me alone to my own devices.

Did make it to the Bargello and Pitti Palace last Tuesday for the free event. Both were wonderful and nearly empty which was fabulous. The Caravaggio exhibit at the palace was awesome and the household items exhibit at the Bargello was so interesting. Combined they are better the Uffizzi.

Thursday night, about 7 or 8 of us decided to go to aperitivo and then out on the town. As usual, aperitivo was a stunning array of awesomeness. I had a margarita that was borderline terrible but terrifically alcoholic and ate a crazy amount of appetizers. Appetizers are one of my favorite food groups, so aperitivo and I get along very nicely. We were there for about 2 hours stuffing our faces with meatballs, mini calzones, focaccia sandwiches, pasta dishes, caprese, olives, and some kind of mashed potato casserole and we got a huge cocktail for only 10 euro. We went to Goldenview again which has a lovely view of the Arno and Ponte Vecchio.

From there, Kate and I went to Via Romana (the student housing) to freshen up and then met everyone at the Lion's Fountain near school. It's an Irish pub that I've mentioned before and the only reason I continue to go there is because they give us unbelievable drink specials. Later on we decided to leave and try a couple of bars by my house only to find them completely empty and expensive, so back to Lion's. Here's Joey doing some very impressive Karaoke. Notice the Halloween decorations, which are not uncommon around Firenze. All of the dollar stores are full of cheap costumes and decorations which surprised me. I couldn't figure out how the kids would actually trick or treat considering that all the apartment buildings are guarded by locked doors. Turns out the little darlings simply run from building to building mashing on ALL the buzzers until some poor soul comes down at least 2 flights of stairs to give them candy -- which, I gather, doesn't actually happen that often. They also hit every open business they can find. I think the restaurant I was in gave out cookies or biscotti or something in lieu of candy.

It is decidedly Fall here and I've turned on the heat in my apartment. If we had any trees in Firenze there would be Fall leaves -- I have had the pleasure of seeing them in other places. The rainy season is also officially upon us. It rained most of this weekend which kept me indoors probably more so than the past two months combined.

Luckily, we had a lovely day on Saturday. Andrea and I headed to Orvieto to look around. It is in Umbria, the green heart of Italy and it was, in fact, very green compared to Tuscany and very beautiful. We got on the train around 9am and ended up in Orvieto around noon. For 15 euro we purchased a combined student pass to all of the major sites. We started in the Orvieto Underground. The city sits atop a butte of compressed volcanic ash, not to be confused with volcanic rock. The compressed ash is easy to excavate and the city's inhabitants have been digging tunnels, water shifts, cellars, and escape routes for thousands of years. Orvieto has been inhabited on and off since the Etruscan Era -- the local archeology museum houses many pots, a few murals, and even some armor.
The first underground room we entered acted as an olive oil mill (see mill stone to the left of the first picture) for a couple hundred years, then a wine cellar. The room itself was originally dug out by the Etruscans as a place of worship, then repurposed as needed over the centuries. The other picture shows a room with a bunch of little square holes in the wall. These rooms were plentiful and used to house and farm pigeons. The young birds were a delicacy and apparently pigeon farmers made a tidy profit. The stairs led to the farmers home on top of the butte. A small tunnel opened to the valley below so the pigeons could gather food for their chicks.

It was really interesting and it also gave us some great views of the valley and an ancient monastery-turned-hotel at the bottom of the valley. Since the volcanic ash is so easy to dig into, you can also imagine how unstable it is. Scholars believe that the butte has already lost over 1/3 of its original area. In many places the underground tunnels have caved in, damaging homes above. All around the outside of the butte you can see where layers of the butte have fallen away into the valley exposing old caverns. Apparently, there was also some mining that occured in the 17th century (the ash was used to make concrete) which also compromised the stability of the town above.

From there we explored Orvieto's Duomo, which was truly stunning. The mosaic and marble work outside are exquisite. The back and sites of the church are pleasantly striped, which I can't seem to get enough of. Inside was an interesting chapel housing reliquaries (whole skull!!), another chapel has very interesting frescoes -- the colors are extremely brilliant and the figures are more cartoonish. They seemed very contemporary but were actually painted in the 15th century. One scene shows the horrors of hell, complete with demon carrying the whore of the apocalypse on his back. Whoa.

We stopped for lunch at lovely bistro. There was no sign, it was tucked back on a little street, and it was packed with Italians, so we figured we picked a good place. Andrea had gnocchi with spinach and truffles and I had potato and taleggio ravioli with a zucchini sauce that I could not figure out. It was super good but I have no idea what I was actually eating. The sauce tasted buttery but was also creamy but clearly did not have cream in it. Seemed like the texture of grated onion but it wasn't oniony. I don't know. It was awesome.

We visited the three museums in town and also climbed to the top of the clock tower (240 steps!!). My thighs were burning but I made it and it was well worth the view. 365 degrees of beautiful countryside complete with rolling hills, vineyards, olive groves, and distant mountain views. It was a really beautiful day and we were up there all by ourselves! On the way down the stairs we passed a black lab on his way up with his owners. Italy is ridiculously dog friendly. I've seen them in grocery stores, in bars, wandering around by themselves in shoe stores (don't all dogs instinctually chew shoes?) and now at historical monuments. Piazzas are dog playgrounds. Bring Conifer when you visit, Kristen.

All in all a lovely day. We got back to Firenze around 9. The next morning, I awoke to soaking rain and stayed inside all day. Every time I tried to leave it was absolutely pouring. Around 7, I met Andrea for dinner (still raining). I donned my new rain boots and slogged my way about a mile to the restaurant. The boots are heavy and acted like ankle weights but after a long day laying down I really wanted the exercise. I had amazing meatloaf with a balsamic vinegar/onion reduction and roasted potatoes. Dude. It was so good.

After dinner, we walked around for a while hoping to see some Halloween revelers. I think we were out around 9 and I think we were in between the trick or treaters and the party set because no one was out. We walked the circuit between the Duomo and the Piazza Signoria twice and didn't see much going on -- except for the carabinieri chasing off the guys selling designer knock off bags near Piazza Repubblica per usual.

Despite the rain, it was a great weekend. A big change from all the running around I have been doing. It's good to take a break and slow down a little but really it's also boring. I'm totally used to traveling all the time now and I don't want to stop! Trying now to organize trips for the Winter Break. If anyone is planning on visiting, let me know soon so I'll stay in town! Otherwise, trying to get together trips to Seville, Prague, Amsterdam, and Warsaw. Bologna this weekend!