Yesterday we went for a day trip to Orvieto in Umbria. Orvieto is in southern Umbria not far from the border with Lazio. This beautiful town dates back to before the Etruscans and its position on top of a volcanic plug means that it has a natural defensive position without the need for a city wall.
Natural Defensive Walls, Orvieto, Umbria
After a fairly relaxed start from our home on the Tuscany Umbria border we arrived in Orvieto at around 12.30. There are car parks higher up but I like to park at the station and take the funivia up into the town. You buy tickets in the station bar (€2 return), head across the road and make your way onto the funavia, a railway going up the very steep slope towards Orvieto. There is one carriage at each end and they are connected with a system of cables so that the weight of the descending carriage helps to pull the ascending carriage up. Use the same ticket to get on a bus up to the Duomo, there should be one waiting as you arrive.
Funavia, Orvieto, Umbria
We alighted from the bus outside the Duomo and as it was already lunch time, headed for a leisurely lunch at the Ristorante Zeppelin, a trattoria in the maze of streets leading off from the piazza del Duomo.
Ristorante Zeppelin, Orvieto, Umbria
After lunch we wandered over to the steep cliffs that form the natural boundary of the centro storico and looked at the views across the surrounding countryside.
View From Orvieto, Umbria
Slowly, we made our way back through the streets of Orvieto towards the Duomo. If you wander off the main shopping streets it is easy to get disorientated but there is always something interesting to look at. Most of the buildings in Orvieto are made from tufa, a soft brown yellow volcanic stone that can easily be shaped into blocks.
Tufa Tower, Orvieto, Umbria
We didn’t have time to do everything in Orvieto, so we missed out on climbing the Torre del Moro from the top there are more superb views. We also missed out on the Underground Orvieto tour which takes you down into a network of man made caves in the tufa below the city.
Torre del Moro, Orvieto, Umbria
The main shopping streets are full of shops selling the famous white wine, Orvieto Classico, salamis and cheeses and brightly coloured maiolica pottery.
Maiolica Pottery, Orvieto, Umbria
The Duomo is by far the most striking building in Orvieto, unlike most of the town, it isn’t built from tufa and the green and white striped marble throughout the interior and exterior echoes that of the Duomo In Siena.
Duomo Facade, Orvieto, Umbria
The facade is stunning, at the base are medieval carvings and higher up are relatively modern mosaics that make liberal use of gold leaf which lights up in the sunlight. The whole facade has been compared to a triptych, a painting on three panels, usually used as an altarpiece.
Medieval Carvings, Orvieto Duomo, Umbria
The vast interior has glass and travertine windows to provide illumination, the thinly sliced travertine stone windows look amazing with the light behind them, you can see the patterns in the stone as the light shines through.
Travertine Window, Orvieto Duomo, Umbria
Interior Of Duomo, Orvieto, Umbria
Whenever I go to Orvieto I always go to see the frescoes in the Chapel of San Brizio, the right hand transept of the Duomo. The frescoes in this chapel are the finest work by Luca Signorelli, a painter from Cortona in Tuscany. Luca Signorelli finished the ceiling that Fra Angelico and his assistant Benozzo Gozzoli had started fifty years earlier before getting started on the walls where he painted scenes from the biblical end of of the world.
Detail From The Damned, Luca Signorelli Frescoes, Orvieto, Umbria
Luca Signorelli was interested in the human body and strong foreshortening, the subject matter of the Book of Revelations gave him ample opportunity to show off his skill at painting nude human bodies, everyone, from devils to humans looks like they have been heavily working out at the gym.
Resurrection, Luca Signorelli, Orvieto, Umbria
The most interesting scenes show the resurrected as skeletons and bodies coming out of the ground and violence and mayhem as devils carry off the damned and the Antichrist preaches with murder and sin going on in the background.
Read more about Luca Signorelli’s Frescoes, San Brizio Chapel, Orvieto, Umbria
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Read about Luca Signorelli’s Frescoes In San Crescentino, Morra, Umbria
The ticket also gives you access to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo at the back of the Duomo.I wanted to see some paintings by Simone Martini and a Mary Magdalene by Luca Signorelli.
Mary Magdalene, Simone Martini, Orvieto, Umbria
The Simone Martini paintings were beautiful but the subject matter was the usual Madonna con Bambino and various saints found on church altarpiece panels. The Luca Signorelli was a bit of a disappointment, I wondered if an assistant had finished her face, it looked as if it had been slightly squashed to fit within the painting. If you have the time and are interested, it’s still worth a quick look in here.
Mary Magdalene, Luca Signorelli, Orvieto, Umbria
Time was running out so we caught the bus down to the funivia and took a detour down St. Patrick’s well, the Pozzo di San Patrizio. This well was built on the orders of Clement VII, a Renaissance pope, who had been held hostage in Rome by the Holy Roman Emperor. He wanted to avoid the same thing occurring and had the well built so he could hole up in Orvieto if the Emperor invaded again. The well was built with two spiral staircases cut into the tufa, one on top of the other, so that donkeys could go down and fetch water in a continual one way system. The well was never used and became an expensive waste of money, until, that is, modern times, when an endless stream of visitors to Orvieto go down and back up, each paying €4.50 for the privilege! Incidentally, Henry VIII of England was refused a divorce from Catherine of Aragon by Pope Clement VII because she was the Holy Roman Emperor’s niece, this led to England’s split from the Catholic church.
Pozzo di San Patrizio, Orvieto, Umbria
We returned back down the funivia and headed home to the Niccone Valley on the Tuscany Umbria border, about an hour and an half’s drive away.
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