Damned

Saturday, September 17

No, Hello Kitty is not damned. In fact, she is somewhat revered here. I just took this photo because I wanted to show you a store near our bank where we started the day off from. We rented a car for the weekend again.

After the bank, our first stop was a town called Bagnoregio. That is not entirely accurate though as we didn't even get to Bagnoregio. We really just wanted to go to the old town which is referred to as Civita, the dying city. It has been nearly abandoned due to its risky subsidence. A sturdy bridge has been created to keep the two towns joined.
Alex and Neil were long gone by the time Eleni and I got going (you can just see them half way there)!

Here we are in Civita.

So, it's not entirely deserted. This is unfortunate, because it takes away from the whole adventure of it. There were plenty of tourist shops.

Eleni's first experience with a Turkish toilet.

We found a beautiful 1581 Cathedral in the center called San Nicola. It survived the great earthquake of 1695 which started the erosion of the town. Inside, we found the body of St. Ildebrando (Patron saint of Bagnoregio. I cannot find anything interesting to tell you about him except that his festival is on August 22).

Foreshadowing of what was to become of the city?

Empty, overgrown buildings everywhere.

An hour later and we were on our way out.

We returned to our car. Just in time, too. Our parking stub had only two minutes left. The police has visited the car park recently, as there were a few with tickets. Interesting which crimes are chosen to pursue here...

We got in the car and within ten minutes we crossed the border from Lazio into Umbria. This was a surprisingly big event for the kids. Twenty minutes and several windy roads later, we were in Orvieto. There is a huge car park close to the hill Orvieto is on. We parked our car and took the elevator up to this site (I was far more interested in the couple on the left than the history at this point).

We wandered through the streets for a while, but, aside from gelato and coffee, we had only one main historical goal. We've learned our lesson: keep it simple. Despite the fact that Orvieto is crowded with the beautiful and the famous, we kept to this simple rule. We didn't even stray into any shops. And yes, even Hello Kitty was here, too.

Once again, I had not read ahead. I hadn't even looked in the tour book except to quickly read that the Duomo was a highlight. So, it was. It may seem ignorant of me, but I have to admit that I am enjoying the surprise of these old cities. Having few expectations is working out so far...

This is why the view below shocked me.

And then, bam! Here we are.

I've read quite a bit after the fact, so there is much I could write about the Duomo now. But, I'll keep my comments here short. Besides, I have a feeling we will return.

The building of the Duomo began in 1290, on the foundations of an Etruscan temple and some earlier churches. Pope Nicholas IV wanted this Cathedral built to house the blood stained linen from the Miracle of Bolsena. I'll digress. In 1263, A priest in Bolsena was consecrating the host when blood poured forth. This relic was immediately brought to Orvieto and forevermore the church holiday of Corpus Christi has been celebrated.

The outside was spectacular, and then you go in. Its immense space reminded me of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Massive. Medieval. Spiritual.

And then the Renaissance part of it makes it even better. Not being prepared has its merits in that this was overwhelming, and interesting to look at with the kids. Eleni was grossed out by it within minutes, but Alex stuck around and we followed the story of the damned. The San Brizio Chapel is dedicated to telling the story of the apocalypse. It's intense.

There were sign posts saying NO PHOTOS, but the swarms of tourists were blatantly taking them anyway. Being a damn tourist as well, I followed with my more subtle method (camera in purse drive by shot). So, what you see here is my forehead on the top right, and then on the left, which is really the main panel when you walk in, is Fra Angelico's Christ the Judge. That is a wholesome piece.

In sharp contrast, you can see Luca Signorelli's torturous end (or beginning of their lives in hell) of the sinners on the left and The Resurrection of the Flesh on the right. Unfortunately, I was feeling quite guilty about taking photos at this point and the paintings were too much of a reminder, so I did not get the fresco of the antichrist for you. This is unfortunate, as it was my favorite.

We politely avoided the wedding that was taking place in the Cathedral and walked across the aisle to the other chapel in honor of the blood stained linen. By this point, I was high on guilt, so I have nothing to show you.

We exited. Photos allowed.

The square just outside the Duomo.

You are walking around in awe of everything and then, bam! You get brought back to the 21st (or 20th?) century. Alex and Eleni had a great time calling their father, Papa Puffi (ok, I did, too.).

Keeping to our rule of just visiting ONE church, we had lunch and then left Orvieto. Here is a photo of the wall above the car park.

Next, Alex and Eleni had a birthday party to go to! Forty minutes later we were here in the hills overlooking Orvieto.

A word about birthday parties here. In the States, parties run 1-2 hours and, as your kids get older, you get to drop off and run. We've been to three birthday parties in the past week (I wish I was kidding) and each one was 4-5 hours with adults expected to stay and chat. Champagne even!

So, five hours later, we drove home in the dark. There were so few lights in the hills that the stars shown perfectly; it was comforting knowing that we're under the same sky.