Orvieto is most famous for its duomo, or main cathedral:
If you look closely, you'll see where Lady Gaga got her idea to be carried on stage at the Grammys in a giant egg:
Orvieto is a hilltop town, sitting on top of cliffs that are reinforced. If you want a sense of the scale, play "Where's Waldo?" (or maybe "Where's Wall-do?"), looking for me in the picture below.
Not surprisingly there are some amazing views from these walls:
And here's what I'm thinking might be an old abbey. I haven't asked yet.
The place we're staying (B&B Garibaldi) is becoming famous for its breakfast spread. Check this out. The owner, David, comes by with a breakfast cart and sets up this amazing feast on a table in the room:
Not surprisingly, we highly recommend this place. The other guests (it has only two rooms) got stuck in Orvieto today for a few hours because of a train strike. Train strikes in Italy are so civilized - They actually announce them weeks in advance and they usually start Saturday at 9 pm and go to Sunday at 9 pm. Since we weren't traveling today by train, it didn't affect us.
Yesterday afternoon, we got caught in a brief but intense thunderstorm. When the raindrops started, I couldn't believe how large they were. As a Seattleite, I'm much more used to drizzle. I took a picture of the first few drops hitting the pavement, with my shoe in the frame to provide a reference. It was light being hit by lots of little water balloons.
Tomorrow we're off to Verona. It's a long train ride - switching trains in Bologna, where we hope to grab a quick but tasty lunch.
And finally, here's a picture for Mimi and Mungo to enjoy.
I thought I commented on this already, but you know me and technology! As I thought I said, I love the duomo. It is just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI didn't find Wall-do, unless he was hiding in a hole in the wall near the front of the picture. It really doesn't look like anyone I know, however.
The raindrops are impressive. (Who else would have thought to take pictures of raindrops, or where the raindrops had been?)
I'm sure Mungo and Mimi are enjoying blogging, also.
Thank you again for these delightful pictures.
Mom
I was showing this to your dad and found Waldo! There he was sitting against the wall.
ReplyDeleteI didn't find Waldo either. France does the same thing with train strikes. Always in the same month, announced in advance so you can plan to work at home, etc. Beautiful photos!!
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