9-night DCL Mediterranean with Greek Isles cruise - Day 3: Orvieto

Orvieto

I previously mentioned we’d all been to Rome before and we were going to do some different things. I learned about Orvieto from the main moderator of our cruise meet group and when I looked into it, it looked incredible. And it was. This actually might have been one of my favorite days of the trip. Roger’s main ask was to go to Tivoli to see Hadrian’s villa. We did not know when we made these selections that there would be a national worker strike. The strike was set to begin at 9 PM on the 19th and run through to 9 PM on the 20th. When I had originally looked into the trains to Orvieto where were lots of options but closer to the trip, there were fewer. I don’t know if this was because of the impending strike or some other reason (rail maintenance, etc.) but we had not many intercity options and since we wanted to have enough time to really explore the city and get back before the strike, we booked tickets on regional trains. This meant it took us longer than it might have, but we had some time to relax and socialize.

We were a few minutes later leaving the apartment than we wanted but we still made it to Termini on time. The train was at platform 1est, which we took to mean, platform 1, heading east. No, this is in fact, not what it means. There are two platforms east of platform 1. 1est and 2est. We were not the only ones confused and suddenly everyone waiting at platform 1 with us started running away from the platform towards...somewhere. But I knew that those people were going where we were because I had sort of asked around when we arrived and so did several other people who came up after us. But the platform didn’t have its sign lit up. And Dru said in Geneva that was normal and the train would just pull in and the sign would then update. But we followed the mass of running people to find the other set of platforms hidden away. When we figured out what was going on we were so stressed but we made it to the train in the nick of time.

The train ride was about two hours (an intercity train would have been around 90 minutes) and we arrived around 10:30 AM. Normally when visiting Orvieto you take a funicular up the hill for a few Euros, but the funicular was undergoing maintenance and they had a bus in place instead. So we bought the tickets (no tap to pay here) and hopped on the bus. The bus ride up to the walled city perched on the top of a hill was like a crazy, real life amusement park ride. The driver was insane. It was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying but we survived. Once we got there Dru and Emmaline had some smoothies at a little cafe and we all hit the restrooms before starting down all the steps at Pozzo di San Patrizio (the well of St. Patrick). This deep 16th century circular well shaft was really beautiful. We spent about 30 minutes there climbing all the way down and all the way back up again. 

Back at the top I knew we needed to take the Orvieto city bus and I had already researched which line we needed, but my Italian is terrible and the bus waiting there wasn't the right one and the driver's English wasn’t any better than my Italian and I finally got the notion that line we needed wasn’t running, but the driver gestured for us to hop on his bus when I showed him where I was trying to go on the top and he seemed to indicate that he would get us close to where we needed to go. I prepped for another wild ride. Later we did find out why that line wasn’t running and it was because we ran into, once more, the 1000 Miglia with the vintage cars. 

The bus came to a stop and the driver shooed us out. We were actually at a pretty cool lookout so it was a happy accident. Orvieto isn't huge so it wasn't really a big deal for us to walk once we got near the city center. I mapped us over to our next destination: Pozzo della Cava (once again, I love living in the future as I’m not sure how we would have figured everything out otherwise) and made our way through those caves. The whole of the city is full of underground caves, which were dug for a variety of reasons from wells to storage to pigeon farms, to Etruscan tombs. Many were repurposed in later times for wine storage, olive oil press and storage, kilns, and other purposes. 

We left there and I had previously researched a good looking lunch spot nearby called Le grotto del Funaro. It was a super cute little underground place and we had a great meal. The star of the show for me was the farro salad. It was amazing. We all shared a few dishes so we could try some different things. After lunch, we walked over to Torre del Moro, the clock tower in the middle of the town. 240 stairs later and we were rewarded with an amazing view of the city and surrounding countryside. We went back down and got some gelato and did a little shopping. At 2:45 we walked over the piazza where the Duomo is. The church is absolutely beautiful. We didn’t go inside, but the outside is stunning and I’m sure the inside is also incredible. But with only one day, we had to make some decisions. And we had purchased a “Carta Unica” attraction card that got us into all the underground things so we focused on that. If you're spending more than one day, they have a card that pretty much covers ALL things one could do in Orvieto. I had booked ahead a tour of the Orvieto Underground for 3 PM with a 2:45 arrival. We arrived and for those just walking up, they were booking for the 3:30 tour so we were able to go right on the tour, but we probably could have booked it same day if we were willing to wait or come back. But the timing was perfect for us.

The tour was about an hour and guided so it was nice to get a little more detail and background on the city. We learned about the reasons for all the undergrounds and how they were used over the centuries in different ways by the Etruscans and Romans and later in medieval and Renaissance times. I will say, though, that we were a little done being underground by this time! It was time for us to head back so we tried to figure out how to pay to take the city bus back to the square where the funicular station was because, as I mentioned, these buses didn’t have tap to pay. Ultimately the driver just waved us on. Once back, I bought tickets for the bus down the hillside to get back to the train station.

We had some time before we needed to take that bus back so we had some coffee and snacks at the cafe and I had possibly the best marocchino of the entire trip. Each time I ordered it after that initial time, all the baristas seemed surprised that I asked for it, which was funny. A little after 5 PM we took the bus back down the side of the hilltop which was just as wild a ride, if not crazier, than the ride up. I have an idea for a new theme park ride I’d like to pitch. 

Then we took the couple hour train ride back to Rome. Once at Termini we split up. Roger went to go buy some wine while Dru, Emmaline and I went over to the Budget rental counter to see what we needed to do for our car rental the next day (yes, car rental - remember the impending strike?) because they had called me and said I needed to check in with them to prep our paperwork to make the rental the next morning quicker, but the desk was closed. Then we picked up a “Too Good to Go” (food waste app that I was surprised to see operates in Europe as well). For €4 we got a grab bag with a croissant, a sandwich and several doughnuts at closing time from a bakery there. Then we all met up at a grocery store close to our AirBnB to get some things for dinner that night to pair with our leftovers from the previous night for dinner and a few things for breakfast for the next couple of days. 

We made a little feast of all our leftovers and some things we picked up at the store. After that, we prepped some things for the morning, took showers and went to bed.