Orvieto....

After our cooking class with Velia, we stopped by Orvieto on the way home. It is a charming, medieval town. It is really incredible to think of those people building such magnificent buildings. They loved their cathedrals and spared no expense making them stunning.

Again, I loved taking pictures of the countryside on the way. I don't know if the pictures show how beautiful it really is.

Here is the Duomo in Orvieto. It is built with stripes of white and black marble. The facade (front) of the church is the most ornate we saw. Murals with gold decorations made it sparkle in the sun (especially with a bright blue background!)

Here is the piazza surrounding the Duomo. I love all the piazzas there are in Italy. It is a nice place to meet, relax and get your bearings.

After we saw the Duomo, we took an underground tour of the caves. All around, under the town, there are 1,100 caves. Some were dated back to the Etruscian period. Those Egyptians really thought things out. We saw a water well that was dug in the middle of the cave, going down hundreds of feet to reach the water source.

On the way to the caves, there was this view of a castle in the valley. The castle is actually a bed and breakfast you can stay in! Hmmmm.....maybe next time.

The caves stayed cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They could hide from intruding armies and predators in them.

This picture shows the place where they kept their pigeons. They were perfect for a food source because they could go out through the window hole for food and then return back to their little perch on the wall of the cave.

Orvieto is known for their pottery, so after our cave tour, we did a little pottery shopping. They even ship to the United States for a lot less than I thought it would be!!

We got gelato, let Andrew play in an old video arcade we found in a restaurant and drove home!