Orvieto!

Today we got to spend the day in the tiny town of Orvieto, just north of Rome. We got up early to catch our train out, but of course it was delayed. Still, we made good time, and the fact that we got to take a trolley up the hill from the Orvieto train station was pretty awesome and made up for our slightly rocky start.

The first thing one notices upon arriving in Orvieto is the huge church, or Duomo directly across from the bus stop. The church is noticeable not just for its great size or its impressive façade of marble and mosaic, but also its striped-ness. Both the interior and exterior are covered in horizontal stripes, giving stark contrast to its soaring verticality. Inside the church we saw some extremely frightening frescos depicting the Last Judgment. The one of the Inferno was probably the scariest, and we were especially fascinated by the Technicolor demons who were shown torturing souls there.

Lisa showed us around a bit, and then set us loose to cause mayhem and destruction around town. Many of us went to a coffee shop to stock up on caffeine for the day and splurge on some of the brightly wrapped chocolates they sold there. Mmmm. They are for friends and family, we swear…

A group of us found a really good view of the countryside and had a good time looking at that, then we hit the streets to find some good souvenirs and a place to have lunch. You can’t ask for better than Umbrian food. I had gnocchi. It was awesome.

Orvieto is known to have really beautiful pottery, so many of us got gifts for

people back home in the pottery shops. There are also many other types of artisans with shops lining the streets there, so it was a good time. When it was time to go home we got to take the trolley again, then mess around at the train station for a while.

Yeah, we are insane. Anyhow, it was an awesome day. Yay Orvieto. I’ll bet you are all hoping you are one of those lucky people who is going to get some of that chocolate, huh?
-Julia