Getting to and Eating in Orvieto, Italy

Many of my dear readers seemed to agree: Orvieto beats out Perugia in my battle of the day trips. I’ll be doing a similar post to this about Perugia, too; but first, let’s talk about the particulars of a day trip to Orvieto from Rome.

1. We took the 9:05 train from Termini, which got us in at 10:23; we took the 4:09pm train back, which got us in at 5:16pm. Not bad. The tickets ran us about 7 euro each.

2. When you get there, the funicular is directly across from the station, and it’s 95 centesimi and good for 70 minutes. The ride up takes a few minutes tops.

3. When you get to the top, go to your immediate left, walk up the ramp and head through the ornate castle-looking archway to the community park. As soon as you enter, head to your right and walk around the guards’ catwalks for a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside.

4. Come out of the garden, if you can tear yourself away, and head straight across the road to the street in front of you. That’s the Corso – and your main artery through Orvieto. Go ahead and take your time strolling up this street – it’s a real winner.

5. Up quite a ways is a street that starts on your left; it’s the via del Duomo. Follow that, and the crowds, until you reach the Duomo. To say you can’t miss would be quite an understatement.

6. Visit the church. It’s magnificent. Take a load off on the ledges across from the church – and just look at its sheer size for a few minutes.

7. Is that your tummy rumbling? Look no further than to your left, at the adorable places in the piazza:

This place looked really cute and seemed affordable. However, with the umbrellas there, you might have to sit inside to get a seat, as they always seem to be taken.

This is the place next door, and although I’ve never seen it open it does in fact exist, and was my friend Leo’s favorite place to eat in Orvieto while he was restoring the glass in the rose window of the Duomo.

Aaah, here we go. This is toward the back of the piazza. That first place is a store that sells oil, wine and other things of the sort – but also has a little counter behind which a nice little old lady will make you sandwiches and cut up some cheese for you. Two large sandwiches, a large plate of selected cheeses and two bottles of water ran us 13 euro total.

How cute is that?  And nice and cool in the summer heat, too.

And next door to that is the delightful Gelateria Pasqualetti, where we got two cones of goodness for 4 euro. Boom.

The place in the very back of the piazza, at the far right of the picture above, had a delightful menu and I think a fantastic view from their back garden, and I look forward to trying it the next time I’m up there. Please note that these places require walking over teeny tiny little bridges to get to their entrances. Swoon.

8. The other place I’ve eaten there, the first time I went, was at the Trattoria del Moro, about one block back the way you came on the Corso at via San Leonardo, 7. It was nice and cool inside, and hilariously boasts free wifi. We had two antipasto, two large, delicious pastas, water and wine for 28 euro total. Here’s their menu! Ha!

9. It should be noted that under Orvieto is an entire subterranean city that is open for guided tours. I know absolutely nothing about this, but it’s supposed to be spectacular. So, you know, do that.

10. Oh, one more thing – go past the church, off to the right and down a sloping street until you hit the end – this is the view:

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