Orvieto: The Most Gorgeous City In Umbria, Italy

As much as I would love to take credit for deciding that this is indeed one of the most dramatic cities in Europe, other people did this way ahead of me and a trip to this city only further corroborated that designation.

Orvieto truly is something else!

The city is built on almost vertical cliffs and boasts one of the most elaborate facades of any cathedral in Italy.

In addition to all this, the city is almost 3,000 years old and is indeed one of the most historically rich cities you can ever imagine visiting.

As the sun began to set over Italy, we made our way in our rickshaw up to this amazing city in the mountains. In truth, I had no idea what to expect. It looked cool from afar and that looked like a good enough reason to pop by.

Needless to say, I was suitably impressed.

I may have taken far more photos than I originally anticipated here.

My one gripe with Orvieto (and I guess it isn’t really a valid one) was the presence of that scourge of many a historic-sights-seer – scaffolding! I know they’re necessary but seeing as photoshop isn’t one of my strongest skills, they’re gonna be an uninvited feature in what could have been a photo of the detailed facade of Orvieto’s cathedral. 🙂

*See what I mean about that scaffolding? Did no one inform them that I would be arriving? Harrumph! 🙂 Hehehe!!!

Despite this scaffolding, I spent way too much time marvelling at cathedral before heading off to find out more about the city.

Come with me…

Haha! I couldn’t keep away from the cathedral for far too long. Plus, I got lost and ended up back where I started… 🙂

By the time, I returned to the rickshaw, I found out we had a little stowaway in it. A rather excitable little girl, bouncing up and down in it, with her mum busily taking photos of her on her phone.

Eventually, after much persuasion, the mother managed to get her daughter to decide against her initial plan to join us on the road trip and we were free to hit the road again. This time, headed for Rome.

This was another late journey (we arrived in Rome close to midnight) and found these street lights/decorations along the way. Anyone well vested in Italian culture who might be able to explain what these are?