Overwhelming Orvieto

If you ever make it to Umbria, you may not forget to visit Orvieto in the provincia of Terni. More famous than my beloved Todi, it attracts more tourists too, but they know how to appreciate its beauty so you can enjoy the lovely spots together.

(c) Wim van Gent

Of course you have at least heard of the famous Duomo. Its facade can only be desribed as impressive and you can sit down and watch it for hours. I am not going to give you more details, because every writer in the world already did so. The interiour has a serene atmosphere and is absolutely overwhelming for its height an brightness. Don´t forget to visit the Capella San Brizio and admire Signorelli´s masterpieces.

The Piazza del Duomo is a great place to have a coffee and watch other people that, like you, are impatient to see more of the town.

For there is a lot more. Nice souvenir shops where you will certainly find something you like and good restaurants and trattoria´s to have a lunch with one of Orvieto´s specialties, like pollo orvietana or pigeon and, of course, drink an Orvieto Classico.  I have my favourite, but I won´t influence you for they all have a good hand on food.

Orvieto has an few interesting museums, for example the Museo dell´opera del Duomo or the Etruscan museum. The good thing is that the tourist office, located at the end of the Piazza del Duomo, sells the so called Carta Unica that will permit you to visit several museums and attractions all by one card.

I went to Orvieto Underground. It was very interesting. The two caves that are open to public provide an impression of the more than thousand caves in the town. All of them are still private property and used as wine or food cellars. The two I visited were used for those purposes too. The second one showed an amount of holes in the walls, used to breed pigeons, and a deep well to provide water. The first showed a complete olive mill.

That way, the town was assured of having enough supplies in case of a siege from the valley. Later, in World War II, the second cave had been served as a shelter for the hospital in case of bombing (which, fortunately, never happened).

The last thing I have to tell you is, that the entrance ticket will give you a shortage for Narni Sotteranea, about which I wrote before. Click here to read about it.

(c) Jetty van Gent

If you still have time left, there´s the Torrel del Moro from which you have an amazing view of the Umbrian landscape, or

roam around Orvieto´ small streets and alleys......

…...and on´t forget to look up now and then.

Narni underground

This time in march I finally got the opportunity to do something that had been on my wishlist for years: visit Narni Underground.

It is, of course, always some kind of an adventure to descend below the earth and see what lies beneath. I mean, who has not dreamed about discovering lost caves and hidden treasures?

But Narni Sotterranea – the Italian name – attracted me in particular for I had been reading about its history before an therefor already knew that the area has been well kept and the research had been thorough. It promised to become a very interesting visit.

It did. As soon as I met our guide, Aroti Meloni, in personal, I could tell she was enthousiastic and passionate about the ins and outs of these underground spaces and obviously well experienced.

Narni Underground reveals the remains of an original monastery, the San Domenico, that became destroyed in World War II, forgotten and overgrown with vegetation after that, until in 1978, a group of young speleologists – they were all minors – discovered the entrance, with some help of an old man who had a vegetable garden on that spot.

(c) Narni Sotterranea - all rights reserved

In 1994 it was possible to make the areas accessible to the public. The first room reveals a former church from the 12^th century, decorated with beautiful religious fresco´s. It´s original name, as discoverd in a document, was Sant´Angelo, after the Archangel Michael, whose image is shown in a fresco at the left.

(c) Narni Sotterranea

The second area contains an ancient cistern in good state, used to collect the rainwater. Two instruments exposed in the room show us how, in the Roman epoque, land distances and differences in earth level were measured in order to construct linear roads and aquaducts. The aquaduct Formina di Narni, with a length of 13. km, was built this way.

After these two rooms the history became more obscure. The next room possessed a collection of torture instruments that were used by the Inquisition. Documents that were accidentally found at Trinity College in Dublin and further research in the Vatican archives confirm that the room had indeed been used by the Inquisition. One of the documents found was the complete report of the trial of Domenico Ciabbocchi, a man from Todi who was condemned for bigamy (learn more about this story here).

(c) Narni Sotterranea - all rights reserved

The last room had been the prison. Its walls and ceiling represent the interesting but sad story of a prisoner locked up there for months, biding his time by scratching insciptions in the walls. He created different colours by mixing stone powder with urine. The poor prisoner used many symbols, like the numbers 4, 3 and 7 respectively to signify the Earth, a triangle to indicate Elevation and the last to describe God. Other frequent symbols are pigeons, representing Peace but yet held captive a by a thin wire tied to a tree.

(c) Narni Sotteranea

And.. there´s a row of numbers, 7-24-42-70. There are theories about the meaning of them, but not one is proven certain. May you can solve this mystery?

It may be obvious that all my great expectations came true with this visit. I strongly recommend you to go and see for yourself, for there is a lot more to experience and relive at Narni Underground.. (and I haven´t even told you about Narni-Above-Ground) .

Narni Underground is accessable the whole year around. For schedules, bookings, routedescription and more information: www.narnisotterranea.it

Narni, beautiful both above and underground

Though my love for Todi and its amazing surroundings will be obvious, it is not as if I ignore the rest of Umbria. To be honest, I am a country girl and even when I have enjoyed beautiful and impressive buildings, churches and squares in one of Umbria´s lovely cities I am always relieved to return to my country house in the rolling green hills.

Yet it is impossible not to love the cities. They all have special spots and a cultural heritage that is best described as overwhelming. For example, I don´t remember one church, even small and insignificant as it may seem compared to the famous cathedrals, that has no fresco or statue to warm your heart and mind.

It is simply great to discover a small piazza somewhere outside the city center and discover that it has a cute Romain fountain too, or find a centuries old vine in a tiny alley. And it is even more satisfactory to meet a resident who has live there his whole life and is willing to tell you all the stories and where to go to get the best pictures.

Having written about NarniUnderground it feels incomplete not to write about the parts in broad daylight. Narni is literally the center of the Universe...I mean of Italy. It is situated above the clough of the Nera river that made it a strategic spot in ancient times. You get a good idea of this looking down from the Giardini di San Bernardo. By the way, the entrance to Narni Sotterranea is located there too.

Narni has an impressive Cathedral from the 12^th century, as imposing at the outside facing the Piazza Garibaldi, as on the inside, containing various masterpieces divided over several beautiful chapels.

The Piazza Garibaldi itself is a bit irregular and crowdy, but it´s really fun to have a coffee on one of its terraces and watch the people come and go. And if not, there´s always the Roman cistern to admire.

Walking on you will witness the beauty of a well kept Medieval city. 

Narni has the typical picturesque angles that seem to be untouched for ages. 

ThePalazzo dei Priori on the square by the same name, was constructed in 1273. The square itself is said to have been the Forum in the Roman epoque.

Narni, of course, has several beautiful churches, of which I will mention The Santa Maria Impensole. The name means `hanging church` but no adequate explanation has been given yet, though multiple speculations can be found. The church dates from 1000 and is constructed on the remains of an earlier one (8-9^th century) that now forms the crypt.

At this point, my Narni visit continued with the Sotterranea adventure. So let me end this blog by an anecdote from my first time in Narni. I visited the Santa Maria Impensole and left my youngest son (7 then) outside for he had been working on my nerves all morning by `hating churches, walking, heat, old paintings and everything else.` He sat on the Lion at the churches facade and I told him not to move or else.

After ten minutes I thought it had become too crowded at the church door so suspiciously I went to check... and there was my son, standing on the lion, roaring an aria from `Figaro,` not restricted by any textual knowledge, collecting coins and sweets from the more than amused spectators.

Since then, The Santa Maria Impensole goes by the name of Figaro Church in our family.  

NARNI - view (c) Monteolivo