Umbria in May - Orvieto

Before setting off for Orvieto, we go to the weekly market in Marsciano and buy artichokes and strawberries for the evening. After leaving them at our apartment we take the winding SS448 along the artificial Lago di Corbara towards Orvieto. We park near the station (only when we observe from above do we realize that the official large and free car park is behind the station) and take the funicular €1.30 per person each way up to the historical centre situated on the flat summit of a large butte. The tuff cliffs, surmounted by defensive walls built of the same, are dramatic. 

Orvieto, on a rather cloudy Monday morning in May, is quiet. We stroll up Corso Cavour towards the centre and the Duomo, keeping an eye on restaurant menus on the way. The Gothic Romanesque Cathedral is magnificent, not only for the white and green stripes. We sit on some convenient stone benches the other side of the square to admire the façade. The mosaics are spectacular and we take a while to read the description, understanding more as we look and compare and stare.

After investigating various options for lunch we happen upon a menu down a side street next to a Gastronomia. Aronne also provides a restaurant service. We don’t want to eat too much so opt for two second courses. Cinghiale in umido for Andrea and Baccalà all’Orvietana for me. With bread, water and wine we spend just 29 euros total. The food is excellent and the staff are friendly. Highly recommended.

For coffee we go to Caffè Montanucci, where chaos reigns. We take a few minutes to work out what to do: if you want to sit down to eat, you order at the counter, get given a wooden number, sit where you want  - there are lots of little rooms and levels – and the staff will find you with your order. Anxiety provoking! (Will they find us? The place is packed). Dear reader, yes, they did, and the torta con semolino e cioccolata was sublime (Note that I don’t usually like chocolate cake, so this must have been good.) One enormous slice with two forks, one coffee and one cappuccino, sitting down, inside, came to 8.30. Very good. Oh yes, and when you’ve finished you pay at the till, where somebody looks through a pile of handwritten paper bills to find yours……chaotic but excellent.

After lunch and coffee we wander around the centre and have a look in the church of Sant’Andrea with its distinctive decagonal bell tower and decorated pulpit. 

Then, we get the ticket which for 5 euros allows access to the Cathedral with the San Brizio Chapel, the Emilio Greco museum (he did the bronze doors) and the Cathedral Museum and underground area. The school trips of the morning have temporarily disappeared and there are no queues and few people. The cathedral was built between 1290 and 1320, and the interior is imposing more than spiritual. 

We spend some time in the Cappella Nuova or San Brizio Chapel looking at the two frescoes by Beato Angelico and deciphering the dramatic scenes filled with contorted bodies of the Last Judgement frescoes by Luca Signorelli. 

We also visit the cathedral museum, where there are a few works of art and the underground area, where there is nothing much, and the Cappella del Corporale, reached by a separate entrance to the side of the cathedral, with its 14th century frescoes. We sit for a while on the stone benches, and watch the world going by, and admire the façade, and then decide to head back to the funicular, stopping at the Albornoz Fortress, built in the 1350s to look at the view of the surrounding countryside.

We liked Orvieto.