Orvieto

i surprised Francesco with an envelope to be opened at 10am at the train station. he didnt know where we were headed and after running for our train we spent the day in the small hilltop town of Orvieto.
the huge and beautiful church of Orvieto

one wonders why such an immense and costly structure was erected in this tiny town. its because one day some priest or something who doubted that the communion was really the body of christ passed by orvieto and while they were having communion the bread started to bleed. a cloth with the blood was presented to the pope who was also passing by on his merry way and he declared that a monumental occurance deserves to be recognised with a monumental structure that he visits from time to time. also one time when there was a siege of rome, the pope fled here and comissioned a huge well to be built. which is quite a mission because orivieto is on a hill.

making our way up a watch tower

looking at the back of the huge clocks that adorn the outside of each of the four sides of this tower

the town of Orvieto seen from a tired birds eye view

the Church

the bird

when we could breathe again and looked around at the view, the hill on which the city is situated, drops off into a steep valley. the city poked up through the clouds like an island and the longer we stayed up there, the clearer it became

the guy who we asked to take this photo had a camera that looked like an extra limb it was so huge i felt quite meek handing over my camera (which is fantastic to me in every way) set on automatic..

from a much better perspective, the view down rather than looking up

watching the clock tick

had the most delicious gnocci lunch. by this time i was so starving i was gnawing on the table. in orvieto the typical meat is wild boar so we sampled some salami for starters but for my main meal i had this delicious plate of gnocci (type of potato pasta) with cream and truffles grated ontop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes it was as good as it sounds, and the first time i tasted truffles but it wont be the last. Franceso is sprinkling parmesan onto his tortellini (meat stuffed pasta crescents) in brodo (broth) was equally delicious

in orvieto we also discovered that they have water that defies gravity!

the church again

illegal photos inside the church. but look at the detail and intricacy of everything

!

ah small town life huh

look how enormous it is. i wondered when taking this photo, what it would cost to build something of this quality now. how much it would cost in the hands on labour!!

Orvieto is built on a hill of very soft volcanic stuff, like ash. so there is a warren of tunnels underneath the city for private use, some like this photo are where they made olive oil because the temperature is so perfectly cool all year round

we took a tour Orvieto underground. which was alright, not too much to see but you get an idea.

finally we can see the valley just before the fog moves in at sunset

where they kept pidgeons to feed the whole city

and night fell and orvieto became a different foggy place

we also found Gepetto working into the night

the ghostly clock tower we climed

making peace with lunch

dantes inferno

the church looking eerie

Chocolate festival

im getting rather behind in my posting! sorry about that. a while ago we went to a chocolate festival in a small town outside rome

the towns are built on hills becasue it was wet and swampy in the valley years ago and there was more chance of getting sick because of the wet environment

it was a beautiful day in Norma

fat happy horses

in the chocolate factory, some of the old chocolate moulds

he is rolling and cutting out of the dough, delicious fresh doughnuts hot out the oil that you can have plain or filled with cream or chocolate, when they are filled the italian name is 'Bomba' which means bomb, a calorie bomb

the fresh deliciousness

the entertainment

the person who finished all the chocolate!

the millions of paragliders taking advantage of the clear skies

this is norma viewed from Sermoneta, another small town on the otherside of the valley

the corteo of costumed locals who parade through the town. as before in Marino, every town has this kind of parade and they wear original, beautiful dresses and suit type things

the king and queen

courtier

there are 3 people sqashed in there. this is an alleyway, no claustrophobic Sermonettans here

the old castle where everyone followed the corteo...

to a show of flailing flags and proud townspeople, it was so realistic and these guys were so proud

and very good

leaving the castle

many movies have been shot here and they announced that another movie would start filming the next day in the castle

it looks like a film set, gorgeous

cobblestoned streets. its a beautiful little town full on interesting nooks and crannies to discover, very picturesque, worth a visit, about 1 hour outside of rome by train but u need a car to get up to the towns

Marino and its wine spewing fountain

so, let me explain about this weekend. in italy there are many food festivals called Sagras, where each town will celebrate something. now there are many small towns around rome and there are so many sagras that you can choose between a few each weekend. In the town of Marino is a wine region and on this particular weekend there was festival famous with young people because... there is a fountain that spews free wine. so many young people! i have no idea where they came from! they must have crawled out of the cracks in  the cobblestoned streets because i never would have believed that young people of this multitude existed in rome! it was quite refreshing aside from the crowded everything.
in this photo we are all waiting for a train, these are the people that couldnt fit on the last train that just left!

crowd control, pah haha

Francesco
portrait in blue

amazingly we pushed and shoved our way to seats! and thank goodness because we waited in that stuffed train for an hour before leaving. the train ride is less than an hour. i was quite wary of the mass of people around us. young, excited people...

it really is quite a beautiful little town perched on a hill.

this is a photo of the fountain that spews wine before it started spewing. we decided against being there for this event on account of the crush of people. one of my colleagues told me about this festival because her mother lives in this town and my colleague Alessandra had been asked to be in the Corteo which is a procession of people dressed as the old royal families and villagers that used to inhabit this town. its quite a priviledge and the costumes are original and fantastic

as i said, imagine hundreds of people coming with the purpose of getting smashed, they sleep on the streets because there is no accommodation left, you buy wine of the region in 2L plastic bottles. it was pretty delicious. eat porchetta which is a roll with roasted pork on, eat mostra al vino- a sweet bread made with the pulp left over from wine, or a special soup that is served in a big hollow roll of bread. all very delicious

everyone is sloshed

the procession

Alessandra looking very regal

and they drunk until they could drink no more then threw up and got on a train  or got on a train and threw up, either way, we didnt stay for that part

and that was that sagra, after discovering this sagra thing, i am definitely going to go to many more.

i planted sunflowers and when i went to marino that weekend so very long ago, they had just peeped up through the soil to say hello to the sun. that was a very long time ago, now they are almost flowering in this stormy roman winter.  spots of yellow will go very well with the grey sky from my window view ;)