Orvieto

As an introduction to Orvieto, I offer the above gratuitous night shots taken on our first evening here, after a little drizzling rain was sent down from above to cleanse the village on the occasion of our arrival. How pretty, eh?  Since Monday night we have had beautiful blue skies with not even a hint of a breeze to spoil the serenity.  Aah, the serenity!  Orvieto is a peaceful little town, by night and by day and we are already having a wonderful time, just relaxing into life here.

On Tuesday we climbed the Torre del Moro  (a medieval bell tower) which was worth the trip up, for the fabulous view of the town and surrounding areas, with farmlands, vineyards, forest-covered hills and even a castle or two laid out like the cliched (can't find the accent, sorry) patchwork quilt that defines Umbria.  

We then walked along the main street towards the Orvieto Duomo (Cathedral), the foundation stone of which was laid in 1290. It is a stunning piece of architecture to come upon as you wander down the small laneway towards it and against the colour of the sky behind it, the photo opportunity was too good to pass up.

Internally, the Cathedral was just as beautiful as externally (the presence of a number of vigilant foto police means you will have to take my word for that) but the facade (again, sorry, no cedilla) made up of millions of gold, blue and red mosaic tiles, each one as tiny as baby fingernails, is absolutely stunning.

Yesterday, we walked around the outskirts of the city walls to take in further wonderful photo opportunities.  :-)

Have I mentioned that I love Italian men?  If I haven't, then now you know.  Here are a few that I loved yesterday.  David didn't mind taking some photos of them for me to add to my pin-up wall, which was generous, no?

Notice that in the background of the second of those shots is a poster for a production of "Trappola per Topi", the very famous Agatha Christie play that we know as "Mousetrap".  We have tickets to see that on Sunday evening in the local theatre and yes, of course it is in Italian, so we will have to do a little homework before Sunday so that we know the storyline and will recognise the characters. When we went to the box office to purchase the tickets, the young lady was kind enough to allow us inside the theatre to see where we would be sitting. It does bear some architectural similarity to La Fenice in Venice, which we've already written about.

I do have another story to tell you, but I will save it for Saturday afternoon, because it is a continuing one and the final chapters of it have not yet taken place.  More on that, later.

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