Orvieto, Civita di Bagnoregio

Originally published on: Sep 28, 2008

My travels to Orvieto took longer than expected, with slow running trains that made me miss my connections, so I was traveling or waiting in train stations for nearly 6 hours. Since the town is high on a hill, 1000 feet above the valley floor, you take a funicular, or cable railway from the train station to the town. From there, I caught a bus to the main piazza where stands the magnificent Duomo, one of the largest cathedrals in the world.

The Duomo in Orvieto

Orvieto is a hill town in Umbria, with about 22,000 residents. It sits on a platform of tufa, or volcanic rock, and has Etruscan roots. There are several museums with Etruscan artifacts dating from the 3rd to the 6th centuries B.C. Most of the items were discovered in the nearby necropoli, or "cities of the dead" that lie at the foot of the hill.

A ristorante in Piazza del Popolo

It was raining when I arrived, and the town was closed for siesta...roughly three hours from 1- 4pm, and I wandered around trying to find my hotel. I finally asked someone with a map for help in locating the street it was on, which was just around the corner from where we stood. I have a comfy room in the hotel, with a lovely view of one of the bell towers and a bathtub, not common in Italian hotels. No other frills, like tv, which is fine with me. Also, there is no wireless access in the town, and only one internet cafe, which charges 3.50 euros for a half hour, the most expensive so far, which limits my interest in spending much time on the internet.  But I'm hoping to get a lot of writing done on my laptop during my five-day stay here.

Street scene in Orvieto.

Speaking of writing, the author Marlena de Blasi lives around the corner from my hotel. I'm a big fan of the books she's written about her life in Italy....A Thousand Days in Venice and others. I located her address easily and am even hoping I might spot her in one of the local bars or markets. She's an American who moved to Italy to marry a Venetian man, and has made Italy her home since the early 90's. Today is my third day in Orvieto and I've grown to enjoy the rhythm of the village, from the early morning market in Piazza del Popolo to the evening passeggiata, when everyone strolls Via del Duomo and Corso Cavour for several hours.

A wedding in the Duomo. 

Last night I got dressed up and went to a concert of music with the theme "Two centuries of music to listen to before sunset", in honor of the Fall Equinox, which occurred today.  Tonight I had a bowl of minestrone soup with a glass of Orvieto's famous wine, Orvieto Classico, and watched the passeggiata from the caffe while listening to American jazz. Later on I'll have a warm bath and savor memories of the unusual day I spent.

One of many ceramics stores in Orvieto.

I was up early to catch a bus to Bagnoregio, which is only about 25 miles away, but takes an hour on the bus to reach. A friendly bus driver made sure that I got on the right bus, telephoning another driver on the other side of town to wait for me until I could make my connection. There were only three people on the bus, which surprised me, as early buses are usually filled with children on their way to school.

Civita di Bagnoregio

When I arrived in Bagnoregio, a young woman got off with me, and I asked her if she was going to Civita, my real destination. She responded that she was, and I asked her where she was from, since she looked Asian. Sure enough, she is from Japan, but has been living in Cremona, Italy for the past three years, learning to make and restore violins at the Stradivarius workshop in Cremona. She will return to a small town near Hiroshima in October to work in her husband's business of restoring musical instruments.

Introducing herself as Miwa, she apologized for not being able to speak English, but we were able to converse in Italian quite easily. We had a twenty minute walk to reach the pedestrian path leading to Civita, often referred to as the ultimate Italian hill town. Like Orvieto, it is perched on a tufa platform high above the valley below, but it is much smaller and has only 20 residents. The view of Civita is quite amazing and impossible to describe accurately, so I encourage you to check out the view from this website:  http://www.civitadibagnoregio.it/english/civita/history.htm

Hiking outside Civita.

While in Civita, we stopped to visit the garden of a woman named Maria, who urged people walking by to view her garden, then asked for a donation of a euro. We viewed an ancient olive press and had freshly grilled bruschetta from an open fire.

A garden scene in Civita.

It only took us a few hours to see the entire village and take in the panoramic views from all directions, and then we walked back to Bagnoregio to catch the bus to Orvieto. Miwa had a few hours to enjoy Orvieto before catching a train back to Cremona, so I had the pleasure of showing her around the town, since I was already familiar with its streets and monuments. She was especially interested in buying Classico wine to take home with her.

Miwa and I enjoying our adventure in Umbria.

Meeting people like Miwa is one of the perks of traveling alone...and it seemed like an answer to a prayer. If other people had been around to talk to, I wouldn't have made the effort to forge a connection with a stranger. Just yesterday I had been wishing I had someone to talk to and share some of what I was seeing. After having plenty of company in Firenze and Lucca, and with limited use of the internet, I was getting a bit lonely. Being able to converse with someone in Italian made it even more special.