Orvieto

We left our camera at home on this second trip to Orvieto on Friday, expecting (correctly) that there are enough good pictures on the Internet. Also, it has been raining all week, and I was not in the mood to fuss over the camera. M simply chose to forget hers at home.

It was a school trip by bus; we drove by the flooded banks of the Tiber; on that day it rose by 12.5 meters in Rome! We only had time for lunch and to see the cathedral and the archeological museum on the central square.

The lunch at the yuppy-ish Caffè Montanucci on Corso Cavour (recommended for "great sandwiches" by our Latin teacher, a big foodie) turned out to be a total flop: overpriced, the place didn't have any decent bread, so it was impossible to order sandwiches. We carefully avoided it last time, but it would be not polite to leave now. M ended up with a rather cold vegetable soup (€ 6.80), I -- with some rather cold vegetarian pasta (€ 6.80).

There are indeed good pictures of the cathedral on Wikipedia, initaly.com, and, for example, at

http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo.htm

http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo%20Inside.htm

http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo%20San%20Brizio.htm

Either we have overdosed a bit on the church stuff, or Luca Signorelly's frescoes in the Brizio chapel are indeed a masterpiece, but we found the chapel pretty revolting, especially the smaller medallions showing with gusto gruesome scenes of clubbings, hackings, and impalings of sinners. Normally you have to pay 6.50 euros for the privilege to see the chapel.

The archeological museum holds the Faina collection, which by itself is not great (unless you are seriously interested in ancient coins), but the detailed explanations give an interesting insight into the amateur archeology (that is, pilfering of antiquities) in the 19th century Italy.

Finally some sun this morning.

(If all this sounds a little like grumbling, recall that we've been in Italy for a while now, four months to be precise.)