Rain in Orvieto

Last weekend, we were supposed to go on a field trip to a dying city (I can never remember its name.) This city was built on volcanic earth. Over time, erosion took the middle away, so now one half of the city is on a cliff face and the other half is on top of a mountain. They've built a bridge between the two, but either with erosion or one earthquake, the city has a short timeline.

Unfortunately, both for the fieldtrip and the general atmosphere of Viterbo, it was raining. Pouring, really. After we had already gotten on the busses and started moving, Frankie, our USAC representative turned around and said, "Oh, because of the rain, we're going somewhere else."

We got to "somewhere else" by taking a charter bus, hoping on a ski tram and walking: bienvenudo a Orvieto. Our first stop was St. Patrick's well, designed in 1537 as a Papal escape plan. There was one spiral staircase going up and one going down, neither which connected (I didn't realize this until I started going up.) Here's a shot from the top:

And the bottom:

Those dungeon-y little windows run alongside the staircases and were probably about four or five feet tall, to give some idea of scale.

The other nice thing in Viterbo (besides a cheap, nice lunch and a shop where a lady talked to us about learning Italian) was a cathedral:

That kid in the foreground is a USAC student, Anthony. The cathedral was started in 1208 (that's about all the information I could learn: Everything else was in Latin or Italian, alas.) The stripes in the bricks on the sides run all the way around the building. I think that must be regional or something: There is a building in Viterbo with the same layout.

We stopped at a Etruscan museum which was also, sadly, only in Italian. But I do understand the pottery pieces, small coins and figures were very ancient and incredibly detailed, so it was mildly amusing.

The coolest sounding thing about Orvieto, however, we didn't have time to see: An underground Necropolis! Perhaps, we'll go back for a day trip.

Here's a photo of rainy Orvieto, seen from near the well:

The hills, the greenery, the villas at the bottom are all very typical Italy, as is, so far, the rain. (well and landscape photos courtesy of Aine.)

Oh! I bought gold boots today:

10 euros, baby!