ORVIETO
Of course we had to show Annette our favorite town in Umbria: Orvieto! I could be very happy living in Oriveto. I love all the stone, and the medieval feel of Orveito, and as a bonus, it's relatively flat, making it easy to get around. With the direct train to Rome you can be there in an hour, or be in Florence in just over an hour. Unfortunately Orvieto is just slightly (well, okay, a LOT) over my price range, but because it's only 45 minutes away we visit quite frequently.
We usually drive up into town and park at the lot just in front of the funicular, if we can find a parking spot that's free. We then stoll up the Corso Cavour, turn left at the clock tower and enjoy all the ceramic displays until we catch our first glimpse of the Duomo.
Because I love caves, no trip to Orvieto is complete without a visit to Orvieto Underground, the man-made caves that honeycomb beneath most of Orvieto. And although we didn't have time for a visit to the civic or Etruscan museums, both located on the piazza Duomo, I highly recommend both. We had lunch in one of our favorite places, 
Café Montanucci on Corso Cavour, a simple place where you can eat a great salad, quiche or pasta dish, and after that you can check out their amazing selection of chocolates. For gelato we always stop at Gelateria Pasqualetti, just to the left of the Duomo. It goes without saying that the Duomo in Orvieto is amazing, both inside and out. If you're there late in the afternoon when the sun hits the mosaics, every fleck of gold sparkles and glows.
You can see all my photos from that day in the Orvieto folder HERE, and of course all our photos are always available on OUR FLICKR PAGE.
posted by Barbara
@
9/28/2009 02:52:00 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments :
Barb.
Do you mean housing in Orvieto is well beyond your price range? or prices for daily items, eating out etc?
It seemed better priced than some other towns, e.g. Siena and Perugia , on our last visit.
Definitely housing costs are way out of our budget. Because it's on the train line and so close to Rome, it's a very popular place to live for those who can afford it. As for daily costs, I've never bought much more than a meal or gelato, so I really couldn't compare.
Barb - I love reading posts like this one - favorite places as well as costs. My husband and I are still planning a two year stay in Italy - originally to have started in spring '09, but pushed out to start in fall '11 instead. We plan to be car-less so we will want to stay close to train lines. Maybe we'll have to be a bit further away from Rome though to keep prices more affordable. If you and Art are still there then, we'll look you up!
Melissa, please do contact us if we're still here! Where do you think you might stay? South is generally cheaper than north, but for us we wanted to be close to Rome, Florence, Orvieto, etc.
Orvieto was one of our favorite cities as well. Perugia is also a very convenient city to travel to and from with trains going pretty much everywhere. I recently finished a watercolor of Piazza Duomo - here's a link (shameless self promotion!!): http://livecheapmakeart.com/piduor.html
Love Orvieto! Such a captivating place. You're right though, the prices are ridiculous. Anything within an hour of Rome is untouchable. We saw some tiny dumps in Anzio that were selling/renting for exhorbitant rates, just because of that "easy" communter train. Not far from Orvieto are some cute little towns that cost less just because they're not on the rail line.
At least Orvieto has a huge free parking lot where lots of people leave their cars - some long-term - to travel elsewhere. If you lived near Orvieto this would be an option.
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