For the next two days we basically toured around Umbria (and a touch of Tuscany), taking in as much as we could. Beautiful sun (part of the time anyway), top down, glorious! Thanks to my superb navigational skills, we missed a turnoff from the Autostrada and ended up taking a long, truly wonderful, drive through the Umbrian countryside, ending up at Todi - another delightful little town set atop a craggy hill. As an added bonus, we also finally made it to Montepulciano. And another night, dinner and breakfast at Amorosa wasn't too hard to take. What a great couple of days!
My memories of this part of the trip are so plentiful I can't even begin to address them all: the wines from Montipulciano (I wish now I'd had a case sent home!), the Assisi basilicas, the treacherous long steep walk to the top of Spoleto (it was wet and the route covered in moss) and Tom's excited insistence that I capture this billboard (don't click if you're on the straight-laced side!) from Spoleto (well, like all good advertising, it certainly caught our attention. And it was good for a laugh even if we don't have a clue what it's all about!)...
But my most lasting memories are of Orvieto - because it was such an unexpected and, ultimately, pleasant surprise. Basically, I just liked the "feel" of the place. OK, "ambiance"...whatever. My mental image before arriving was that Orvieto was probably not much of a town, but that'd be OK 'cause we were just staying there overnight prior to setting off for the Amalfi Coast the next morning.
Our arrival in Orvieto was not happy. It was late at night, we were both exhausted, the deluge of rain we'd been driving through along winding country roads had already lasted an hour or two and if anything was getting worse. We had no idea where our hotel was or how to get to it, and we had to navigate the most narrow roads imaginable up (yes - UP - it's another HILL town!) to and through the town - with visibility next to zero.
Having no alterative, we pushed on. All of a sudden we saw a little sign-post pointing the way to OUR hotel - 1km to Piccolomini - along with those for other hotels. WOW! Squinting madly in a vain attempt to see SOMETHNG - hopefully another sign - we inched forward. THERE! Another sign! Left - only 300m to Piccolomini! Then Another - right - only 50m! Almost there! And Another - left 200m! Hello? 200m? A minute ago we were only 50M away! After apparently going around in circles and repeating this scenario a couple of times, I said: "The Hell With It!. Where's my umbrella - I'm going to find this bloody place on foot"! And pouring rain or not, find it, thank God, I did. The challenge, I later learned, was all the one-way streets. If you made the correct turn, the hotel was just 20m away by road. But if you missed the turn, now it would be 300m before you could get back to it. I suspect we actually drove by the hotel a couple of times, but in the pitch black and pouring rain, we never saw it. Oh, the joys of Italian hill towns!
But the Palazzo Piccolomini Hotel was great, the room spacious and comfortable, and after a fine dinner at a nearby restaurant, accompanied of course by Orvieto's famous white wines, the world started to appear a little less bleak.
Next morning the sun was shining - one of those "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world" days. So we decided to defer our departure for Positano by a few hours and check out this Orvieto place. As we walked around town, it intrigued me how friendly and comfortable the place seemed when only last night it was so cold and hostile! What a difference a little sunshine and a good night's sleep can make!
Orvieto boasts a truly magnificent cathedral, without doubt the town's primary magnet. A not-to-be-missed-if-at-all-possible attraction.
Also of interest are the extensive caves underlying the town which over the centuries the inhabitants have carved (or enlarged) out of the rock on which Orvieto rests. These caves have served many purposes over time, including supplying a secure water source during times of attack (e.g. Pozzo di San Patrizio - St. Patrick's Well) as well as providing in times past the 3 fundamental requirements for producing Orvieto's wines: a constant temperature, darkness, and being undisturbed. It was fun to sit in our hotel dining room and stare down into a carved out "wine cellar".
Now - on to Positano, the Amalfi Coast and the Isle of Capri!
