Orvieto Day Trippin'

View from the top of the hill

Friday was the Roman holiday celebrating Saint Peter and Saint Paul, so basically the whole city was shut down so we decided to get out of town for a day and cross off another place on our long, long list of places to see in Italy. Orvieto is a small town that is literally perched on top of a mountain (hill for us Americans). Upon arriving in the train station, you have to ride the funiculare (like a giant ski lift up the side of the mountain). There is a stunning church and just a nice little town in general.


We took a very interesting tour of the Orvieto Underground, which is a series of tunnels and caves dug into the cliff to store wine and olive oil because of the perfect temperature. They also housed large pigeon coops where they raised the birds for meat and used the waste as fertilizer. Today many of the homes still have these underground caves (we would call it a very rudimentary basement) which they still use as wine cellars.

Underground pigeon coops

Besides buffing up on our history, we also spent the afternoon wandering around eating ice cream and lazing about in cafes. We planned to participate in a wine tasting but our guide book failed us miserably, so that was the only misfire of the day. But it's ok, because the prices of Orvieto wine are higher in Orvieto than in Roma!

Orvieto Cathedral