May 22
Looking Over Tuscan Countryside Of Orvieto
Had breakfast at the Internet cafe/modern wine bar while trying to finish a post finally from the Cinque Terre. Afterwards, we went to the mall/market that comes to town once a week on Fridays, and the fish store that is only open with the fresh fish on Fridays.
We hired a cool driver today, Alesandro, and he drove us first an hour away to Orvieto. Its a small town on the top of a cliff, that was once covered by water, then later volcanic substance. Eventually, all the water went away, and they needed a way to get to water, especially during the 2 year siege by Rome. So they built these underground caves, wells, pigeon coops (for food), and they basically created an underground city. We traversed through 2 long tunnels of caves and rooms that once held olive oil mills and fully situated cities. There are currently over 1000 caves discovered like these here, basically a hollowed out cliff that the town sits on.
On this town is even a giant, beautiful, cathedral. My guess is that in some time in the future, this entire town will collapse. The last giant erosion was in 1992.
Our second town that we drove to was Todi (no, not the soccer player Totti). We spent an hour in its town center that for the day was the flower market and gift market. My mom bought some home made acacia honey, and I lounged on the church stairs. This was a pleasant town, with what seemed to be pleasant people. We ate lunch there. I had ravioli with spinach and ricotta in a creamy sauce and of course, it was quite delicious.
We drove to a third town called Deruta–the porcelain capital of Italy. Yawn. I ate a gelato, had a coke, and milled about.
This entire day we have been chauffeured (whats the Italian word for that?) around in a Mercedes Benz mini van, toting 6 adults and the driver. We have been on extremely winding roads and I have battling car sickness. Kathy Blenkush has brought along these cool wristband type thing that has a bead in the middle of it that is supposed to apply pressure to a pressure point in your wrist that eases motion sickness. I am not sure if it helped me or not, but I am glad I didn’t go without it.
Made it back to Montalcino and had a glass of wine while working on the Internet. I needed to email our Rome apartment to let them know our approximate arrival time, as well as try to book a room for Kathy and Jeane in
Rome, as well as trying to secure ticket reservations for them to the Vatican museum with us. Talked to grandad via skype while there and he told me m a racist Italian joke (ok, I told him, but I’ll give him credit since older people can say whatever they want and get away with it).
Made it back upstairs and ate some yummy pinchi and sausage pasta my mom made, and then settled down with some wine and a game of chance (card game similar to golf card game).