Orvieto! 7-1

We woke up super early today! Got right on a bus and headed off to Orvieto! This is a nice little town outside of Civ. That is basically a little tourist city. It’s very quaint, very adorable. You’ll have to see the pictures. I felt like I was in a movie walking down the streets. The bus ride up was terrifying as you go up a cliff, but we’re getting used to that. Our bus driver looked like Santa Clause, we have a good picture. Check it out.
There’s also an awesome Cathedral right in the middle of town, a HUGE cathedral. Right smack dab in the middle. We went inside, and it was breathtaking. We couldn’t take pictures, but it was wonderful. There are two different rooms with frescos inside that are supposedly the inspiration for Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. They were scenes from Revelations. In the center there is a small little chapel. We sat and prayed for awhile, and it was nice. The cathedral is strange because it’s striped. Not kidding. There’s a few pictures from the outside and the inside is the same scheme. It’s striped white then green, but the green is faded so it looks like an off black. Interesting aesthetic. The majority of the tour involved walking through the underground caves of Orvieto. There is literally of framework of caves that go underneath the city and people use them for cellar type things and also for tourism. They were pretty insane. The caves are hundreds of years old but they’ve been used throughout the ages for different things including bomb shelters and the like. The tour guide spoke great English and it was absolutely fascinating. If you’re claustrophobic though, they’re not for you.
From Orvieto, you can look down and see the whole of the Italian countryside in that area. It’s so intensely beautiful, I wish I could describe it adequately. There are rolling hills and it’s super green. There are little vineyards splattered here and there and lots of hay bales that are wheel like rather than little hay bales. My favorite part were the animals though. We’d be driving along and we’d see a little packet of horses here, or some cattle there. I’m not joking. Trees, trees, hills, little lake, packet of horses, trees, villa, hay. I could have lived there, it was so beautiful.
Lunch was expensive, and not terribly good, but it was ok. It’s Italy. Nothing is THAT bad. We ended up walking around the city for awhile with a kid who’s been to Rome before. We talked about different things till it was time to go, all the while walking down whatever little ally way we thought looked quaint.
When we got home, we ate dinner at the little restaurant next to the one the night before. Wait staff definitely not delicious, but we ate with another SASer that James knows who’s from Texas. He thinks a lot like us, so we had some great conversation over dinner. Stopped for some Gelato, got back to the ship, watched the end of the incredible, and then went off to sleep!
One more day in Italy! Tomorrow we're off to Rome!