Iowa Girl on the Go

We left the noise and crowds of Rome behind today and headed into the slower pace of the Umbrian countryside. En route to our overnight town of Todi (pronounced “Todd-dee”) we spent some time in the hillside village of Orvieto, home to a lovely duomo and excellent local wine.

To get to Orvieto, you have to take first an escalator or staircase to the funicular, ride the funicular up the mountain, and from there you have a lovely view of the valley below. We continued higher, however, in a small bus, which dropped us off in front of the duomo.

We had some free time in Orvieto to tour the duomo or shop or drink wine. I took some pictures and then set about drinking the local wine. Our original table of five kept growing and growing and pretty soon the vast majority of our group was there enjoying a glass or two.

The highlight of our stay in Orvieto was going to the Zeppelin restaurant for wine and a pasta-making demonstration out on the patio with wine and an appetizer and more wine and the pasta and then we went to our tables inside the restaurant for more wine and lasagna and wine and I forget what came next but then there was dessert and coffee and by this time we were, how you say, happy campers.

There was a lot of giggling back through the streets of Orvieto and I told Mauro our guide that if his goal was to make us drunk and happy, he was entirely successful.

Good thing none of us had to drive. We made it to Todi and in to our lovely Hotel Fonte Cesia in the village. (Mauro says we went from Rome: population 3 million to Todi: population none. This is an exaggeration, but it is very small — about 17,000 inhabitants — and Medieval and lovely.)

We are almost at the half-way point of our trip (I believe tomorrow is hump day) so I figured I had better rinse out some clothes so they’ll be dry before we leave in three days for Siena. My bathroom looks like a Chinese laundry just now and I am proud of myself for staying awake and having enough sense to actually do the wash and write this entry after 10 glasses of wine 🙂

I am so grateful that this isn’t one of those “If this is Tuesday, this must be Belgium” tours because I am pretty darn tired and it’s only our second city.

We started out our day today visiting the Vatican: The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s magnificent basilica, the Vatican museums. Like yesterday, the tour was much more thorough than when I was here 10 years ago. I was very happy to finally be able to see the Sistine Chapel, because it’s just one of those things you ought to do before you die. My only disappointment today was that Michelangelo’s Pieta was not open to the public. I was really looking forward to seeing that sculpture again, but at least I got to see it before.

After our tour we returned to the hotel and I crashed. I didn’t sleep well last night so I took a nap, which I never do. After I slept for a little while, I got out and walked around but really took it slow and easy. I think jet lag must be finally catching up with me!