Sunday, April 15

somas see italy: orvieto


{me appreciating the view}


You’ve probably never heard of it.  I hadn’t either, but you’ll want to.  Orvieto is a little “hill” town in Umbria, halfway between Florence and Rome by train.  You’ll be astonished while traveling around Italy at the number of these towns, that in the rolling green hills there will be towns at their very peaks, just hanging out and literally dangling off the sides of the most steep inclines.  Seriously, I understand from a medieval standpoint that you’re safest high up… you know, so invaders and pirates and the like don’t get to you too easily.  So you build high, surround yourself with a wall and create a lot of lookout towers.  Boom.  But, where do you get your water?  How do you not expose yourself too much through opening and closing your gates to get food?


views from the edge






around town










copious amount of food pictures
note i wasn't brave enough to eat any of it!







Maybe I should re-focus here.  Orvieto is very beautiful and people still live there!  Just way up there, you know, totally normal.  And what’s very neat is that Orvieto was built upon an Etruscan settlement.  The Etruscans were in Italy before the Romans and lived in caves underneath present day Orvieto.  I didn’t go in them because I was scureeed.  You walk around the streets of Orvieto and you feel like you should have a coat of armor and be packing some intense weaponry.  It doesn’t help that there are wild boar heads hung outside every restaurant… and no, I didn’t partake… I don’t think I can ever say yes to another Margherita pizza again!  And the views from every angle are incredible, naturally.  Like everywhere else in Italy, there’s 3 churches to every one person, with the Duomo being, in my opinion, the most beautiful of all Italy.


duomo


We walked around, bought food from a market and went into the city’s well… yes.  See, there was some pope who fled Rome and made Orvieto his home.  For protection, the town can’t be beat… except for its difficult position for attaining water.  So the pope had this huge well made, an engineering feat to this day, comprised of a double helix structure, so that people and horses alike can travel down for water and come back up on a different path then they came.  Very trippy and pretty radical that the Romans could make such a thing.  See pictures below.

st. patrick's well


Arguably the best part of Orvieto for us, though, was our stay at an adorable old farmhouse-turned-B&B.  We were a little down the hill from the city, situated on a olive vineyard.  Nice.  And we had our own terrace to watch the sun.  Boom.  And the place was decorated to the nines.  And we had a big, homemade breakfast with the B&B’s owners and two other couples who stayed, one from Germany, another from Italy.  It was essentially a mini UN in which we compared and contrasted our countries and cultures, and came to an understanding and great appreciation.  Awww.







 

onto rome!

Sunday, April 8

somas see italy: venice




Our first stop was Venice.  If I have one regret of the trip, it is that we didn’t spend enough time there.  You feel like you’re in a movie set and that around whatever bend you’re near, Angelina will come whipping around in a fancy boat, or you’ll get a glimpse of Reese Witherspoon kissing Hugh Grant filming some RomCom.  That didn’t happen, mind you, but I felt magic there regardless.  And it’s such a great destination for those who just want to “be.”  I mean, there’s many, many sights to see, but the wonderful thing about a city created from 117 islands is that just seeing it is the most important thing.  Every canal is beautiful and every arch exotic with byzantine influence.  I was told some great advice by Rick Steves (personally, haha) or someone like that… get lost.  The beauty to Venice is best witnessed off of the beaten track to San Marco’s Square, which happens to be awesome too.  And if you want to see the important things, you will, because while the cobblestone streets are windy and seemingly aimless, they all open to the most perfect little piazzas, with perfect cafes and impressive churches.  Honestly, you’ll just be so astonished that this place was ever created, let alone continues to be.  I don’t know if it will make you feel humble, inspired or gobsmacked (how the heck did I incorporate that word into this post?!?), but Venice made me feel all of those things and more that I can’t quite verbalize.

We also went before the city gets stinky, which probably really helped my rose-colored perspective.  Oh and it helps that you would have to almost work to NOT have a room on the water?

Here is our time in Venice, in pictures.  Notice the abundance of: bridges, colorful buildings defying the laws of decay (they were built on foundations of mush..whhhat?) and gondolas!


c o l o r 





 s h u t t e r s


c a n a l s


b o a t s

 g r a n d   c a n a l


a d o r a b l e


f o o d


c h u r c h e s


f l a g s


s a n  m a r c o   s q u a r e



s a n  m a r c o   b a s i l i c a



b r i d g e   o f   s i g h s


m u r a n o   g l a s s   m a k i n g


l i g h t s


So who’s ready to trade in their car for a boat?  Anyone, anyone?