Orvieto and Umbria

Last weekend, we had our first out of three weekend trips included in our study abroad experience. It was great because we were able to meet a bunch of the students from LdM Rome including one of my sorority sister Liese!! We caught the train in Orte and made our way to a wildlife reserve in Alviano. Our guide gave us a tutorial on bird watching and we were able to check out the reserve. She brought me back to Gen Bio as she did water samples and inspected the critters under the microscope. We went to a cute little restaurant and enjoyed lots of pizza, prosciutto and Coco-cola on our own private floor with a deck overlooking the hills of Alviano. We then made our way to Orvieto, a town that reminded me a lot of Tuscania, but bigger. You have to ride up a little tram in order to get to the top of the "city on a hill." Orvieto is in the Italian region of Umbria. We had a bunch of free time and had amazing gelato. We found a tiny shop full of homemade leather goods. There were even slabs of leather just hanging across the bench ready to be crafted into purses, bracelets, diaries, etc. The shop was owned by a sweet older man. Later that night we met back at our hotel (which was so nice, called Hotel Corso), and we went to a palace to sample Umbrian delicacies including two of Orvieto's most famous wines. We hung out around the town and I later fell asleep in our boiling hot hotel room.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel: croissants, nutella, cereal, yogurt, fruit, pastries, etc. We then saw probably the most beautiful sight in Orvieto: the Duomo. Check it out:

This church was built in the 14th Century after a special miracle occurred in the nearby Bolsena (only about 20 minutes from Tuscania). A priest was traveling throughout Italy and he had doubts about whether or not the host and wine were actually the body and blood of Christ (a central belief of Catholics). While saying mass, this priest was shocked when blood starting pouring from the host after he broke it. The blood stained the altar cloth, so the Duomo was built to house this relic. As you can see, the front of the church is beautifully decorated with carved figures and frescoes. Unfortunately, not all of the frescoes are complete originals because they were touched up in order to be preserved, but all of the carvings are originals. They describe the story of Adam and Eve, and there is a beautiful rose window in the upper half. The sides of the church are striped, which I have never seen before. These horizontal stripes contrast the Gothic vertical columns in the front of the church in order to provide a balance. Our guide also told us that the church has both Gothic (extremely high vertical towers) and Romanesque features (round arches). He explained the history of Orvieto and how  there was discord among the aristocrats and peasants, so the aristocrats decided to call in the Romans to help put the peasants to rest. However, this was a bad idea because the Romans had wanted to conquer Orvieto for a long time, so they ended up killing many of its inhabitants and taking over. The survivors fled to Bolsena (this is the connection with the Duomo) and started their lives there. It wasn't until hundreds of years later that the descendants returned to their beloved Orvieto. (I'm not very good at history, so I think that I'm recalling this correctly. Sorry Mike, you're my history guy :)).

We also checked out St. Patrick's Well which people used to retrieve water, and it was extremely well designed so that there were two pathways: one to go down and one to go up. This way, people did not run into each other while getting water. Here is a picture:

The bottom was filled with coins that believe have thrown in to make wishes.

After this visit, we continued to explore and shop. I bought some chocolate covered coffee beans at a chocolate shop that were delicious!

We made our way home after a great weekend!