Le Terrae, Day 3

One of the many great things about this place is how easy it is to get to many other places! You do need a car when you are here, but it is easy to drive to lots of fascinating and beautiful towns and sites.

Orvieto, famous for its cathedral (duomo in Italian), is only 40 minutes away. We parked the car amidst the tour buses and made our way to the funicular, the fun way to get to the top of the hill. At the top, we walked through the lovely streets, checking out the local shops as we went. Eventually we arrived at the duomo at the very top. It is an amazing building of striped travertine and tufa, with a detailed front that is glorious. Here's a picture of the duomo and a detail of one of the columns:
We added the St. Brizio chapel to our ticket and it was well worth it. In the south transept of the duomo, the chapel features frescoes by Luca Signorelli. They are quite amazing, and it was interesting to learn that Michelangelo came there and learned about painting nudes from this painter in the generation ahead of him. It is always interesting to learn all the connections between people, places, art and life. They connect not only through one region, country, or culture, but with the whole wide earth.

We had a great lunch at a recommended restaurant in Orvieto. Everything was closed down (the daily 1 - 4:30 p.m. lunch break!), so we wandered back towards the funicular, finding some gelato along the way, and taking in some of the scenery from this magnificent hilltop.