Day 12 Orvieto & Todi, 9-20-14

Early breakfast then the bus to Orvieto, a fascinating town in SW Umbria. This ancient town is built on top of a tall remnant of prehistoric volcano material called Tufa stone-a somewhat soft material that can be chiseled to make underground caves where families took refuge during seige by Romans and others-even Hannibal. This town is accessible by fanicular. We toured some public caves which are still being excavated. There is a fascinating method of making wells hundreds of feet deep to get water. It is a very nice medieval city and we visited the Duomo of white travertine and dark green basalt architecture. This cathedral of Orvieto was started in 1290 and has large frescos by Fra Angelico and Luca Signorelli. This town had a papal presence through the ages and was controlled by the Popes until the unification of Italy in 1861. Then we continued to Todi. There were three walls around this city to guard it, one Utruscan, one Roman, and one medieval. It's another very tall hill town accessible by mini-bus (like a ski lift gondola). It is a very pretty and large open square fronted by several magnificent medieval buildings and a large beautiful Duomo that features large frescos. We returned back just in time for dinner of sausage, pasta, secondi of roast beef with a squash sauce (delicious), roasted potato and onion with chocolate molten cake for dessert. Carol and I can't wait to get home and stop eating so much!

Approach to Orvieto

Bell Tower

Cave open to public

Cathedral 

Todi - Movie companies like this town

Todi

Pigeon holes in Orvieto

Seat adjustment