Our last morning in Rome entailed navigating the mass transit system in their version of Grand Central Station. The line at the ticket booth was quite lengthy, and our train was scheduled to leave in 15 minutes, so we decided to use the automated ticket machine... thankfully they have an English option. Even so, once we got our tickets we were less than confident that we had done everything correctly. The tickets we had were much smaller and looked very different from the tickets we had used to get to Rome, and for that matter, much different than the tickets that everyone else in the train station seemed to be holding.
With not a lot of time to get help, we decided to just go with it, and hopped on the train that we thought was headed to Orvieto, where our car and night's lodging awaited us. Nervously waiting for the train conductor to come by (and tell us we were either on the wrong train, or had the wrong tickets), we poured over our guide book in the section about train travel. Again... the ticket in the book looked nothing like our ticket.
All our fears turned out to be unfounded however, as the conductor came by and accepted our tickets without batting an eye. I think we even got the "Nazionale" rate instead of the foreigners rate! So thank God, we made it back to Orvieto without incident.
We were staying in Orvieto for the night because due to our constantly evolving plans, we had accidentally skipped a night when booking rooms ahead, so we had a one night gap between our room in Rome and our room in Assisi. We figured our car was already parked free in Orvieto, and we were in no rush to get to Assisi, so we'd check out that town for a day. And boy were we glad we did.
Orvieto is a small Tuscan town known for its ceramics and its salami. Sara probably appreciated the ceramics more, and I'm sure that I appreciated the salami more. As it turns out, apparently we are on the festival tour, as we keep on arriving in town while there are big parties/celebrations going on. Orvieto's festival consisted of various performers doing there thing in the town squares around town. There were acrobats, drummers, jugglers, clowns etc. So we enjoyed watching one of the clowns do his schtick as we had a nice outdoor lunch on the main piazza.
Regardless of the festival, Orivieto is a wonderfully charming town on its own. It is another picturesque hill town with narrow cobblestone streets and lots of quaint, old town feel. There were a lot of little stores for window shopping and the aforementioned ceramics were neat to peruse through. Because it is built on a hill, there were some really awesome views. We found a park that is high up on the hillside and provided some great expansive views of the Tuscan countryside, which looks just like you would imagine them to. Rolling hills, vineyards and other plots of land clearly marked out across the countryside. Very pretty.
After a nice siesta nap, we were both ready for dinner. We found what would turn out to be one of our top three favorite restaurants to date. The ambiance was just right. It had soft lighting amid the wonderful stone walls and arches, and the natural wooden tables and chairs. There was relaxing, if a little bit new agey, music playing in the background. The only thing we would change would be perhaps the removal of the somewhat creepy 'mardis gras-esque' dolls that were positioned high along the ceiling.
The dinner itself was scrumptious. All the food was great, the bread being especially yummy (we asked for seconds). Orvieto is also known for its white wines, of which we enjoyed a bottle (much more than the half carafe that we usually split). I assert that it was more than just the wine that caused us to have a particularly liesurely and relaxing dinner. A wonderful end to an unplanned, but extremely enjoyable day in Orvieto.
The next morning we were woken around 7 am by the the banging sounds of construction, as the hotel we stayed in was in the midst of a major renovation. A bit earlier than we would have planned, but that was not enough to taint our experience and fond thoughts on Orvieto.
With not a lot of time to get help, we decided to just go with it, and hopped on the train that we thought was headed to Orvieto, where our car and night's lodging awaited us. Nervously waiting for the train conductor to come by (and tell us we were either on the wrong train, or had the wrong tickets), we poured over our guide book in the section about train travel. Again... the ticket in the book looked nothing like our ticket.
All our fears turned out to be unfounded however, as the conductor came by and accepted our tickets without batting an eye. I think we even got the "Nazionale" rate instead of the foreigners rate! So thank God, we made it back to Orvieto without incident.
We were staying in Orvieto for the night because due to our constantly evolving plans, we had accidentally skipped a night when booking rooms ahead, so we had a one night gap between our room in Rome and our room in Assisi. We figured our car was already parked free in Orvieto, and we were in no rush to get to Assisi, so we'd check out that town for a day. And boy were we glad we did.
Orvieto is a small Tuscan town known for its ceramics and its salami. Sara probably appreciated the ceramics more, and I'm sure that I appreciated the salami more. As it turns out, apparently we are on the festival tour, as we keep on arriving in town while there are big parties/celebrations going on. Orvieto's festival consisted of various performers doing there thing in the town squares around town. There were acrobats, drummers, jugglers, clowns etc. So we enjoyed watching one of the clowns do his schtick as we had a nice outdoor lunch on the main piazza.
Regardless of the festival, Orivieto is a wonderfully charming town on its own. It is another picturesque hill town with narrow cobblestone streets and lots of quaint, old town feel. There were a lot of little stores for window shopping and the aforementioned ceramics were neat to peruse through. Because it is built on a hill, there were some really awesome views. We found a park that is high up on the hillside and provided some great expansive views of the Tuscan countryside, which looks just like you would imagine them to. Rolling hills, vineyards and other plots of land clearly marked out across the countryside. Very pretty.
After a nice siesta nap, we were both ready for dinner. We found what would turn out to be one of our top three favorite restaurants to date. The ambiance was just right. It had soft lighting amid the wonderful stone walls and arches, and the natural wooden tables and chairs. There was relaxing, if a little bit new agey, music playing in the background. The only thing we would change would be perhaps the removal of the somewhat creepy 'mardis gras-esque' dolls that were positioned high along the ceiling.
The dinner itself was scrumptious. All the food was great, the bread being especially yummy (we asked for seconds). Orvieto is also known for its white wines, of which we enjoyed a bottle (much more than the half carafe that we usually split). I assert that it was more than just the wine that caused us to have a particularly liesurely and relaxing dinner. A wonderful end to an unplanned, but extremely enjoyable day in Orvieto.
The next morning we were woken around 7 am by the the banging sounds of construction, as the hotel we stayed in was in the midst of a major renovation. A bit earlier than we would have planned, but that was not enough to taint our experience and fond thoughts on Orvieto.
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