Wednesday morning we headed up into the mountain town of Orvieto near Tuscany for a day trip; a charming but beautiful town known for the Orvieto Cathedral, the vineyards surrounding it that proudly produce world-famous wine, and the gorgeous views off the cliffs on which the town rests. Our main purpose of the trip was to see the Cathedral and the famous Signorelli frescoes inside, but that only took two hours in the morning so we had most of the day free until we had a 3:00pm tour of the underground caves beneath the city. During our break, we made it out to the edge of the town (only about a 3-5 minute walk from any point in the town), so that we could catch a glimpse of the views from the cliff's edge, and they were even better than we expected!! We literally couldn't stop taking pictures along the scenic trail that surrounds the city on the edge of the cliff. We then found an interesting looking restaurant near the edge of the cliff called "Il Grotto" (The Cave) and were pleasantly surprised that it was down in a cave, yet there was a large bay window next to our table that looked out onto the view, so we lingered over a long lunch sampling various local cuisine and wines. After lunch we continued along the cliff trail to admire the views before we headed back to the Cathedral where the entrance to the caves is located, and proceeded to have a 45 minute tour of the different caves under the city learning about the history and architecture behind them. We returned to Rome in the late afternoon wearing huge smiles and chattering about how we could spend weeks in Orvieto and love every second of it.
Since the town was at the top of a mountain, you had to take a trolley up the steep cliff to reach the top from the train station at the bottom.
Cute Italian punch-buggie in the romantic, medieval setting of Orvieto.
One side of the facade of the Orvieto Cathedral. The reliefs on the facade were unbelievable.
Orvieto Cathedral.
First glimpse of the vineyards below the town, couldn't stop admiring the view!
This is the view from our table out the window of our "cave restaurant"onto the countryside below.
One of the many pictures we took on the cliff at the town's edge.
The lower part of Orvieto from a higher part of the cliff.
Sitting on the cliff wall!
Beautiful vineyards.
Houses that line the cliff trail.
A glimpse of the cliff we had just walked down.
One of the caves below the city; much to our relief, the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler down in the grottos than outside.
One last view of a castle down in the lush green landscape that sits below Orvieto.
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