John Clark – Page 5 – JC's iPhone Blog

One last visit to the cathedral, then back to Florence!

I’m getting further and further behind, I’m afraid, so you’ll just have to keep coming back to check for updates…

This will be a (relatively 😜) short post, as it will only cover the morning of the day we left Orvieto and trained to Florence in the afternoon. We had decided the night before that Orvieto’s cathedral was worth a visit inside, and if we went fairly early, we might beat the crowds. It really is quite the exquisite piece of ecclesiastical architecture, from the amazing mosaics on the facade to the stunning frescoes & stained glass windows, with their thin slices of marble in their lower sections (which I’d never seen before)…

Spectacular mosaic work on the exterior of the cathedral — More gorgeous mosaic work

The vault of the Orvieto’s cathedral — The towering ceiling of the cathedral

Dazzling stained glass — Stained glass (with thin marble slabs that I’d never seen before coming to Italy) lit by the morning sun

Orvieto cathedral’s rose window — The rose window, which faces west, still glows nicely in the morning

There was a anteroom off the main part of the cathedral with breathtaking frescoes covering every square centimeter…

More stunning frescoes — I can’t imagine the hours (years?) these took…

The arches are decorated to the hilt as well — Even the arches are elaborately decorated

Still reeling from seeing all that beauty, we were glad to head back to our hotel, pick up our bags, and head to the train station. One last fun detail: we got to take a funicular down from the top of rock to the station at the bottom. Here’s a shot of that, looking back up from the bottom:

Looking up at the funicular from the bottom, with fountain in the foreground — Looking up at the funicular from the bottom (you can see the little car if you look closely)

After we arrived in Florence, we found our hotel and settled in for three days of museums and galleries. Get ready for a lot of photos of art, coming right up!

Orvieto, day two (and the end of the bike tour)

Tuesday was our second day (and night) in Orvieto, and as I said in closing my last post, we decided to forgo one last day of riding, and instead enjoy all that the city has to offer on foot!

As I think I mentioned before, Orvieto is a very unusual spot, in a number of ways. The fact that the ‘old city’ sits on this giant slab of ‘tuffa’ is certainly one of the most unusual, and there’s a walking path all the way around it, which affords some amazing views of the rock…

Orvieto’s rock, with the walking trail below — The walking path, far below the rock

Halfway down the trail (Mallory for scale)

The trail below the rock, with a castle in the distance — At this point, the trail is also a road, believe it or not

It’s not surprising that this city has been here for milennia, since it’s the ultimate in defensible! So many great views too…

A huge section of the cliff, reinforced from below — It’s also fascinating how they’ve reinforced the rock over the centuries

The cliffs loom above groves of trees in places — Even though we got a fairly early start, it was nice to find some shade

In one stretch, the path merges with one of the modern roads to the top…

Mallory taking in the view — Mallory takes in the view

Amazing stone walls, added to the top and bottom of the rock

Lawn, path, rock, and battlements — It makes for a beautiful combination of features!

Another view of the lawn, rock, and defenses atop the rock — So beautiful, right?

Then the path drops below the road again…

Man-made wall joins ancient rock — Wall and rock combo

A bit further along, a little rose garden below the rock

Another lovely grove of trees along the path

A couple of humble pilgrims find a bench beneath the rock — A couple of humble pilgrims find a bench below the rock. ❤️

About halfway around the perimeter of the rock, we came back up to explore the city a little more. First, we found the Palazzo del Popolo, the palace that the Pope lived in for quite awhile in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Then it was on to take another look at the incredible cathedral (its stature also coming at least partially from the Pope favoring Orvieto in in those days)…

The Duomo of Orvieto — Orvieto’s ‘Duomo’ kind of jumps out at you from the side streets

Orvieto cathedral facade looming over you — The main facade is really something!

Mosaic column detail — So much astounding inlaid mosaic (all the imagery on the facade is mosaic)

Striped side of the cathedral — The stripes are alternating travertine marble and black basalt!

Raptor soaring over the cathedral at midday — Even caught a raptor soaring over the cathedral

Lastly, I have some final highlight images from Orvieto. A festively decorated little alley, the Pozzo di San Patrizio (St. Patrick’s Well), and yet another sunset shot…

Colorfully decorated alleyway — I don’t know what the yellow/red theme was about…

A view across the well at the paths going up and down

Can you picture how the double-helix works?

Looking up the well from almost the whole way down — Looking up from almost the whole way down (250 steps in each direction)

Looking down the well from about halfway (see Mallory on the other side?)

Sunset from near the well — Another gorgeous Italian sunset, from the lookout near the well

The well is a result of the infighting and strife that plagued Orvieto for centuries. It was built between 1527-1537, on the order of Pope Clement VII, who had taken refuge in Orvieto during the “sacking of Rome” in 1527 by Charles V, in order to guarantee the town would always have water. The architect-engineer Antonio da Sangallo the Younger surrounded the central well shaft with two spiral ramps in a double helix, accessed by separate doors on opposite sides of the well, so that trains of mules could move up and down simultaneously, one side with empty vessels headed down, the other with full vessels headed up. Brilliant!

Todi to Orvieto

We’re nearing the end of this incredible two-plus week tour, and we’re feeling it. 😊 The heat has been the main issue, combined with what I think must be relatively high humidity (compared to what we’re used to in Colorado at least). When you’re climbing a steep hill on a bicycle, it’s over 90º and there’s no breeze, it doesn’t take long to feel about as hot & sweaty as could be.

The ride from Todi was just over 28 miles, with the usual 3000+ feet of elevation gain. Thinking back on the past couple of weeks, it occurs to me that the consistent up-and-down-and-up-and-down nature of the rides was more pronounced in Italy that anywhere else we’ve toured on bikes. That, or we’re just feeling the 10 years older that we are since we started doing these tours? Whatever the case, I’ve talked over and over about having a big climb to our destination each day, but I haven’t mentioned that the beginning of each ride usually had a corresponding rapid descent, back to a neighboring valley. The ride to Todi had a nice big descent right off, immediately followed by a very steep, relatively short, climb that really took it out of both of us, for some reason. We had two big hills ahead of us, but I guess the blessing was that none of it was nearly as steep as that first kilometer or so. Needless to say, it felt really good to finally arrive at our hotel on Monday afternoon. Can’t forget the photos…

View of pastoral valley below Todi — Another pastoral vista, this one below Todi

Dense woods with a view to the west — A rare view through dense woods, near the top of the first big hill

Small vineyard with rose bushes — We’ve loved seeing how they often plant roses at the end of each row of grapes

The view back towards Todi — The view back from where we came. Look how far above Todi we are!

A little further on, we rode through the little village of Prodo…

Old tower and buildings — Downtown Prodo?

Prodo’s church — Prodo’s centuries-old church

Thunderhead over woods — “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now…”

Orvieto is a very unusual city, the old part anyway, as it sits entirely on top of a chunk of volcanic “tuffa”, averaging at least a hundred feet high. Check out the satellite view on Google maps, you can see the shadow of the rock along the northern edge!…

Orvieto from Google Maps’ satellite view

Isn’t that wild? Wait until you see it close up…

Orvieto also has one of the most incredible cathedrals in all of Italy, primarily because the Pope spent a lot of time here in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Check out a few images of it from the evening we arrived:

Orvieto Cathedral in golden light — Orvieto Cathedral in golden sunset glow

The cathedral lit up after dark — All lit up after dark. The stripes are travertine marble and basalt!

The primary facade in all its night-time glory

As we went to bed that night, we agreed that we’d take the last day off from riding, and instead take in the sights around the city, above and below the cliffs surrounding it, on foot.