A quick jaunt in Umbria

Acquapendente to Orvieto, in the region of Umbria - 18.80 miles


The North tip of Lazio is a relatively narrow strip of land that juts into both Tuscany and Umbria. Studying the map, I realized that by taking a one day detour, I could reach the town of Orvieto, and thus add another region, Umbria, to my list. More importantly, Orvieto's duomo contains a chapel richly decorated by Luca Signorelli, including his fabulous depiction of the Last Judgment.


I don't normally take detours for works of art, since that would mean veering off every few miles. However, this was no minor work or art, and Orvieto was no small village, but actually a major city in the province.

Wait, time for a quick detour on an informational tangent. Italy's geography is separated into regions (the rough equivalent of our states), then provinces (corresponding to our counties), then comunes (corresponding to our greater city areas, such as the greater New York area, Los Angeles, Philadelphia etc.), then towns, corresponding to parts of the greater city areas (Brooklyn, Santa Monica, West Philadelphia), and finally frazioni, borgate, località, quartieri, contrade, the rural and urban divisions of a city into parts of town or neighborhoods. In summary: Region = State, Province = County, Comune = Greater City Area.

Back to the story... Going one day out of my way is a comparitively quick detour, but this does not make the actual walk there any quicker. I slogged up and down hills, and walked all day, but when evening came, I finally reached Orvieto. The city is on a huge plateau overlooking the surrounding countryside, and there was no way around climbing up that plateau to reach it. Well, that's not quite accurate; there was a funicular that went from bottom to top in two minutes, but that, of course, was off limits. So I walked up a steep hill with no sidewalk (who's crazy enough to walk this street anyways?), and finally entered the city walls.


It was time to find a place to stay and drop off my bag, so I started by looking for religious housing, as it had treated me so well for three days running. I performed my usual tricks, asking the old men, going to the tourist information center, and so on. However, today I was out of luck. I went 0 for 3 on religious housing, the hostel was far out of town, and the only cheap hotel was down below. By now, it was pitch dark, so I turned off the GPS, took the funicular down the hill, and found the hotel.


The lady showed me to my room, quoted a price that was nearly double what the hotel guide had said ("that's from years ago!" Then why don't you update it!). I think the lady saw me go into genuine shock when she said 60€, and as she must have feared losing me, she took the price down to 40€, which was actually a fair price, since the room was well-decorated and the hotel ahd recently gained a star, from two to three.

Anyways, enough boring, useless details. I closed down a Kebab shop, thankful to have barely made it in time for dinner, watched CNN in English for the first time of the trip (turns out the US markets aren't faring so well. Remember, you heard it here first!), and went to bed. But wait! You didn't even see the Signorelli work!