Orvieto

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We finished off our Easter trip with an afternoon visit to Orvieto, a city that fans of Italian wine will likely be familiar with. Situated high atop a butte of volcanic rock with sheer cliffs on all sides, it's not hard to understand the strategic importance of the site over the millenia.

The entrance that we took to the city was pretty interesting. Basically, there's a long tunnel carved through the volcanic rock with an escalator that drops you off in the heart of the city. The following is the Piazza della Repubblica, a plaza not far from where we exited the tunnel.

After a quick lunch, we headed to Orvieto's most famous site -- the Duomo. It was built at the turn of the 14th century and has a beautiful façade with intricate designs with bright colors.

The following are the apartments facing the Duomo on the other side of the plaza. While I'm sure it's a bit annoying to have to look out at tourists all the time, the general view probably makes up for it.

We spent much of the afternoon just walking around the city. Like many of the other towns that we'd visited on the trip, there were some nice artistic pieces incorporated into the walls of buildings.

The following is the Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo, a building that historically served as the residence for important city officials.

We also visted the San Giovenale church, which was built in 1004 and is the oldest church in Orvieto.

While walking around the area in the photo below, we happened upon the entrance to a subterranean area of the city that dates back to the Etruscan period. It was really interesting to see various caves and cisterns carved deep into the volcanic rock by people thousands of years ago -- particularly given the tools that they were limited to (even with the benefit of today's technology, I would have no clue how to replicate what they did). 

Our time in Orvieto went by fast, and before we had a chance to see all the sights it was time to head back to Rome in order to catch our flight. Here's a final shot that I took as we were looking along the edge of the city. You can see how the buildings / walls were built right into the volcanic rock.

I have to say that Orvieto was easily one of my favorite cities during our trip. I definitely would like to come back for a return visit to see some of what we missed -- notably the Albornaz Fortress (a 14th century fortification with the famous Pozzo di San Patrizio well) and the underground city (a labyrinth of tunnels, caves and other sights carved into the volcanic rock -- the spot we actually saw was apparently just a mini version).