On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Elma
I made a second trip to Italy in February 2011. It was sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Association. “If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me…” It was a week in Rome with side trips to other points of interest.
A day trip from Rome was to Orvieto, in Umbria. Orvieto was originally a major centre of Etruscan civilization and later annexed by Rome in the third century BC. The territory of Orvieto was added to the Papal States; it remained a papal possession until 1860, when Italy was unified.
Access to Orvieto, on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff from the car park below, is via a series of escalators.
We were taken first to a restaurant operated by an American ex-pat chef, whose name I have forgotten, for a meal and cooking demo. The name of the restaurant amused me because we had just acquired a new puppy that our daughter named Zeppelin (as in Led…)
Later the chef, on the right, took us on a tour of the local market.
The variety of stuff available at the market was amazing.
Clearly there must be a back road up to the city to permit all these vans and trucks to come to market.
Manyakitty
Looks like a great time! Really interesting historical aspect.
Tony Jay
I went past Orvieto on a train just last weekend and though “Now that* is the place to be when the zombie apocalypse hits!” Italy, especially the south, was full of those little hilltop towns where the history just drips from every stone.
* Other than behind the walls of Carcassonne.
Paul in Jacksonville
Looks like Bernie Sanders in the 4th photo.
evodevo
We stayed there in 2015 – loved it.
Omnes Omnibus
I was there in 2010. Loved the striped church and the well.
opiejeanne
@Paul in Jacksonville: It does look like Bernie, right down to the mittens.
eclare
That looks like a great day trip!
pieceofpeace
I’m wondering whether you did any hiking in this area? It looks serenely rural and uncrowded tourist-wise.
Always more to enjoy and explore in Italy, and I’d love to be there for around 11 months of 2024, with limited tech interference.
Emily B.
My partner, who was stranded in Tuscany last March by a French train strike [Editor’s note: NOT the worst fate in the world], found his way to Orvieto and really loved it. Now I want to go, too….
Elma
@pieceofpeace: Only wondering around the towns they bussed us to from our plush hotel in Rome each day.
StringOnAStick
I spent two months kicking around Italy in 1996; every town or city had great markets like this and it was a revelation to me. Italians know how to live! Thanks for the reminder.
way2blue
Ah. Farmers’ Markets. I love them! Thanks for sharing.
Dan B
My Italian teacher spent several months a year in Orvieto. I loved Umbria but didn’t get as far as Orvieto. I was there in November and the weather was wonderful.