Orvieto, Italy

Thursday, November 2
We made it to the lovely little hill town of Orvieto by late afternoon. This charming hill town is located in the Umbrian countryside with easy access from the Autostrada. I had visited the town in 1993 when a girlfriend and I did a Butterfield and Robinson bike trip called the “Hill Towns of Umbria”. As we drove up the steep hill to the town, I had a hard time imagining that I had ridden a bicycle up the same one back then!

We had no trouble finding the Hotel Duomo once we arrived, as it is right off the main square where you find the Duomo di Orvieto, a large Roman Catholic cathedral which really dominates the town of Orvieto. A bit of history-It was constructed in the fourteenth century under the orders of Pope Nicholas IV. Its façade, we learned contains elements of design from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, with a large rose window, golden mosaics and three huge bronze doors. Unfortunaltey, it was covered with scaffolding for some repairs and not worth photographing. The building's exterior walls, in contrast to the facade, are more simply furnished with alternating layers of local white travertine and blue-grey basalt stone. They were what I remembered most about my previous visit.




Our corner room was spacious for the three of us and had lovely views of the cathedral and surrounding neighborhood. Nick and I went off to explore while Sarah read and rested in the room.

We went out together about 6:30 and explored the town a bit more. The streets were teaming with people of all ages but it seemed to be mostly families. We thought the atmosphere was jovial and upbeat. Many appeared to be going to dinner but others were eating gelato. During our window shopping, Sarah found the ballet shoes that eluded her the whole trip. Hooray! We went to dinner at a wonderful spot called Hostaria Nonnamelia. It’s a very pretty trattoria a block or two from the Cathedral, along Via Duomo. We really enjoyed the decor and architecture of this restaurant-as well as the food. The entry was through two huge two story, natural wood and glass doors; the size one might expect to find entering a medieval mansion(minus the glass of course). Through the glass you could see the candle lit space inside. The natural palette was warm and inviting-and we were hungry! There was heavy use of texture as well with wood, iron, paper, baskets and glass being used as materials for the decorations, fixtures etc. Here are Sarah’s photos….








We savored every bite of our last Italian dinner! I ordered pasta for the first time since our first dinner in Lucca-a fabulous tagliatelli with fresh tortufo!