Italy: Orvieto & Umbria: 6 of 12

May 06, 2025

Leaving the big city for the contryside, we transition to a bucolic, crowd/event/masterpiece and history-free rural change of pace...

That's a lie.

Our first stop, Orvieto, is bustling with humanity, history, and art. We begin with:

Nothing quite as striking as the little guy sounding the hours in the town square clock tower.

However, the main attraction is, as with so many towns, their cathedral, the Duomo di Orvieto:

(full frontal)

(just after rain)

This cathedral attracted my lens... note the center door. History in relief to tell the stories of Christ and the church. A closer view:

Moving inside, we find great beauty:

As one approaches the altar, and the stained glass window:

Referencing the columns with the black bands (above), some of them are more than decorative:

And a church needs a bona fide Pieta, yes?

And an organ:

And we did note they could even paint around corners:

We did enjoy the architecture beyond the church as well. Here's a b&w capture in Orvieto; a little street photography:

It was here that Linda found her ceramic spoon rest, featuring poppies such as we'd seen often on the voyage here from Rome.

It was also here that we got some rain, and our tour guide bought us all umbrellas. Tauk... top of the line.

Our next stop, Perugia. A rural town with no cluster of shops, at least, none that I could find, but a gorgeous hotel... ex-residence, actually. The Posta Donini:

Their website promo pretty much covers the entire gorgeous setting, what with their production crew and drones and such... but what beautiful grounds, and setting, and rooms, and... well, here's the link to the website (and, bonus, a YouTube there as well... click "watch the video" from their website landing page)

We were treated to a concert featuring a piano, violin, and mezzo-soprano (my guess... Linda's not so sure). But it was breathtaking. You can see the concert venue in their video, and here's my shot of it: