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Head for the Hill Towns... Orvieto
With a little bit of anxiety, we figured out how to read the train schedules, buy ourselves tickets, and get on the right train at the Rome Termini Train Station. The train we took from there was the most "vintage" of the trains we took. Having been warned by our travel guides about hustlers and pickpockets, we managed to avoid any such issues until a young man "helped" us get our suitcase onto the train without being asked to do so, then followed us to our seats to seek compensation. I told him we never needed his help, didn't ask for it, and sure as hell weren't going to pay him for it. Too bad our visit to Rome ended that way. Arriving in Orvieto, we met a helpful Bostonian at the funicular (no, I'd never heard of a funicular before this, either) that carried us up the side of the steep hill/cliff from the train station to Orvieto. He gave us some good advice about places to eat//go.  The views of the Tuscan countryside from Orvieto are really stunning. Along with the views we would see a few days later in Cinque Terre, the views from Orvieto would tend to support a cynic's observation that Impressionism isn't that huge a conceptual breakthrough. All you need to do is take off your glasses while looking at the Italian countryside, and paint what you see. Rick Steves steered us right with accommodations. We walked over to a B&B he recommended in his book and got a room. Actually, the owner's B&B accommodations were booked, so we were able to rent a whole apartment, complete with kitchen and washing machine, for the night - all for less than we would have paid in the B&B.  It wasn't long before we were hungry, so we set out for one of the restaurants that the friendly Bostonian had recommended. Unfortunately, we were in the midst of traditional Italian siesta, so that place was closed. We ended up eating lunch at Trattoria Etrusca, which proved to be one of the best meals of the trip. I had steak w/ artichokes, Lillie had chick pea salad, and we split a salad that I'm fairly sure included dandelion greens. They were plenty prickly as they went down, but had enough bite to their flavor that we only needed olive oil as dressing. We had a nice grassy-tasting Orvieto Classico to go with our Tuscan meal, and some tiramisu for dessert. To cap it off, the waiter was very nice about our attempts to speak Italian.  Afterwards, we went to Orvieto's Duomo, which I call the "Beetlejuice Duomo," since it has black and white stripes. Admission to the church is free, but they charge to view Signorelli's Apocalypse. Lillie and I thought that this was kind of weird and arbitrary.  We proceeded along a less scenic street - one we assumed housed the average Orvietan - to St. Patrick's Well. St. Patrick's Well is a technological marvel. Built to provide a clean siege-proof water supply for Popes retreating from invasions of Rome, the well runs very deep and has a double-helical staircase that allows for water-bucket-carrying mules to ascend and descend simultaneously without passing one another.  After the well, we visited some Etruscan caves discovered during excavations for a restaurant. Based on the general lack of information and air of indecisiveness to the exhibits we've seen, not all that much seems to be known about the Etruscans, other than that they seem to have just been swallowed up by the Romans. Afterwards, we employed our pathetic attempts at speaking Italian to buy salami, prosciutto, asiago, provolone, bread, pickled peppers, and some more Orvieto Classico for a stay-at-the-apartment dinner while we laundered some clothes, read, and relaxed for a few hours. Our clothes mostly dried, we decided to pop over to a wine bar Rick Steves had described as hip and young. It was a nice place, but a slow night. The staff there was very friendly and they were playing a nice jazz station on the web radio. We were running low on energy, so we called it a night after glasses of chianti, Orvieto classico, a Sicilian white, and (I think) an Italian Cabernet Sauvignon. Orvieto was considerably chillier than Rome, so we slept much better. Even the crazy cat next door didn't wake us up. After the hustle and bustle of Rome, this was a much-needed mellower town. Orvieto Day 1.5: We decided to check out Orvieto's weekly street market in the morning, to get some fruit and (we hoped) bread. We were successful in the former, but not the latter. We were tipped off by our Bostonian friend that the market had been moved from its usual location, in order to accommodate a Palio (horse race) in the main square. Palio is more commonly associated with Siena, our next destination. To get bread to use with the remainder of the previous day's lunchmeat purchases, we had to search for a store that carried nice crusty Italian bread. We one where the owner was the only employee and worked the meat counter and register at the same time, which bogs the works down a bit. We also managed to get in line behind a bunch of old folks that had extensive orders, and called them each out (or held them up) like it was show and tell. It was a tad laborious. A younger Italian woman cut in line to pay for one purchase and this went without complaint, so Lillie piped up that we just wanted one loaf of bread. The shopkeep accommodated, but a general elderly uproar ensued. Apparently, if you're Italian and butt in line, it's one thing, but another if you're not... We paid, left the change and got out as quickly as we could.  We returned to our apartment, packed, assembled our sandwiches, and made our way back to the train station. Our train to Siena was more modern, but stopped a lot and never seemd to go all that fast. There would be an initial burst of energy accompanied by higher-pitched motor sounds, followed by long periods of quiet travel that almost seemed to be gliding. It was pleasantly soporific.
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