Among its splendid artistic testimonies, the Cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, stands out in all its splendor.
Orvieto is located on a high cliff, isolated from the rest of the territory, like an island in the middle of the sea. Very interesting is the Chapel of San Brizio, where you can admire the exceptional fresco cycle by Luca Signorelli. Going up the cliff is the Well of San Patrizio, built in the sixteenth century to supply water to the city in the event of a siege. The depth of 62 meters with a cylindrical shape is reached by a spiral staircase. Linked to the well is an ancient proverb “it is like St. Patrick’s well”, to indicate a very long and expensive undertaking. To testify the presence of the Etruscan civilization there is the necropolis of the Crocefisso del Tufo, where it is possible to admire about sixty tombs, excavated in the tufa stones. Very suggestive a few steps from the Duomo is the Orvieto Underground, an underground circuit, inside which it is possible to admire tunnels, caves, stairs and an ancient oil mill, which as in a timeline show the history of Orvieto from the Etruscans, through the Middle Ages, up to the Renaissance.
Orvieto and Cività di Bagnoreggio
Orvieto is one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in Italy
Civita di Bagnoreggio, the dying city.
Civita di Bagnoreggio, defined as the dying city, is considered one of the most magical and surreal villages in Italy, about 25 km from Orvieto. The city rests on a tufa stone cliff which, due to constant erosion, risks making the ancient village slowly disappear. From the long and narrow bridge that you need to cross to get to the city, you can admire the suggestive Valle de Calanchi, which thanks to the action of the rains that affect the clay soil, offers a fantastic landscape in continuous and rapid evolution.
