{Bear with me here, as I have apparently managed to post my Orvieto entries in the wrong order, and this while awaiting the long flight back to LA from LHR - must be the fatigue of a great adventure :)}
Orvieto is a town we have always wanted to visit; now is our time. After breakfast at the Locanda Rosati, we drove along the country road towards the ancient city on the hill. We found the parking lot and took the funiculare up to the town. We walked to the Duomo, bought tickets for the Orvieto Underground tour, and toured the Duomo while waiting for the tour. The tour of the underground caves was amazing; I have now learned more about medieval pigeons than I ever wanted to know.
Orvieto rooftops
We had lunch reservations at I Sette Consoli; it was too hot for the gardens, so we sat inside the beautifully appointed dining room. The service was excellent, and lunch was quite good, tho I have to say that we are probably fonder of the trattoria. I had an excellent eggplant pie to start, followed by a cannelloni stuffed with rabbit, onions and sage. David had a pasta with a ragu of lamb and mint, he finished with a plate of pecorino and honey.
The city was quite closed for the afternoon break by now, but we wandered around the quiet streets for awhile. After returning to the lower town by the funiculare, we decided we had time to take a drive to Lake Bolsena, which we had found out in our morning underground cave tour was formerly the volcano that created Orvieto. It is really quite lovely.
Back at the Locanda I was able to check e-mails before their system crashed and then we went to the pool to cool off. Tonight our dinner companions were all from California – besides us, there were couples from Danville, Santa Cruz and Sausalito, all to the north of us. We have exchanged e-mail addresses, and I have told them about Slow Travel. And tonight there were 20 guests from Japan, not exactly tourists, they are apparently in the food business and are touring Italy to purchase wine for their restaurants. Have you ever said “Banzai” with a glass of lemoncello? It was a new experience for us.
Dinner tonight started with a platter of bruschetta – tomato, gorgonzola cheese and a third made with Indian flavors (the sous chefs are from India, David has the story of how they came to cook for Giampero in Umbria. Next up was a platter of a spaghetti with a sauce of fresh tomatoes, followed by roasted squab and potatoes. We finished with watermelon, and the bottles of grappa and lemoncello. David was able to watch the Spain/Russia semi-final soccer match in the adjacent living room. All is well with the world. When the game ended, Giampero turned on the lights to his wine cellar and we went down to take a look.
Tomorrow, we are having lunch with Barb & Art, and a trip to Mary’s inn. David is dangling a trip to Deruta, depending on time, in my face. He knows that means more pottery, so I hope he knows what he’s doing. Tomorrow will be our last evening at the Locanda Rosati; since all the other Californians are leaving, we will make new friends at dinner. Enough grappa and we may even be speaking Japanese.
