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Rachel Young, Staff Writer
Poking up from an Umbrian valley is Orvieto, a tiny Etruscan-era town perched atop a jutting plateau of tufa. From a distance, Orvieto seems foreboding, its rock pediment like a natural wall. You can enter the town by bus, up a narrow and winding road, but by funicular is better. Midway through your steep ascent, when you are more up than down, look across the valley and the Paglia River. The panoramic view, savored by many summer tourists on their way to Rome, is both expected and astonishing. From this vantage, Orvieto seems not foreboding but fantastic and light as air.
The striking view from the funicular is rivaled by Orvieto's Duomo, the jewel of the town's small central square. In 1263, during Mass, a doubting priest from nearby Lago di Bolsena saw the altar cloth stained with real blood from a dripping Host. Over the next three centuries, the Duomo, an ornate box for the miraculous cloth, was built.
The Duomo is considered one of Italy's greatest Gothic buildings, and its facade fairly drips with color, spires and carvings. Four fluted columns carved with Biblical scenes mark the entrance. It's hard to know where to look first, and your eye jumps from glinting mosaics to a face emerging from stone to the thick black and white stripes that run around the building.
Compared to its Easter egg outside, the Duomo's interior seems hushed and simple. To the right of the main hall, however, is Orvieto's other masterwork of art -- Luca Signorelli's fresco The Last Judgment. The painting is gorgeous, colored in soft fleshy tones, and grotesque. Muscled figured wrestle with winged demons and bent bodies flail through the air. The artist painted himself and fellow painter Fra'Angelico, both dour and dressed in black, into another fresco, The Sermon of the Antichrist. From a perch in the corner, Signorelli watches his work puzzle tourists for eternity.
A long look at Signorelli's fresco can send you out into the sunshine, searching for a drink. The natural choice is a cool glass of the town's famous export, Orvieto Classico. There are several shops near the Duomo square where you can purchase the dry white wine. Some say that quality has suffered since Orvieto Classico is in such high demand, but a glass of local wine is still a good way to ease into evening.
Orvieto is a logical stop on the train to and from Rome, and its famed Duomo draws summer throngs of daytripping tourists. Stay after the sun goes down, however, and you'll be richly rewarded.
When I visited Orvieto in early summer, we arrived in the late afternoon as the light was already turning golden. We spent a while exploring the Duomo, then set out to pull together a patchwork picnic from the various small shops near the Duomo square. We bought a bottle of Orvieto Classico at an Osteria with a cave for a wine cellar. At a store selling locally produced food, we found crusty bread and a pungent white cheese flecked with black truffles.
We had our picnic at a park near the funicular station and watched the sky turn pink with the setting sun, sitting on a stone wall and sipping wine from paper cups. The park was right on the edge of town, and our view was straight down to the brown checkered valley below. The noise of tourists had been replaced with the quiet evening sounds of neighbors chatting, children playing ball, and our feet, hanging over the park's wall, seemed to be dangling off the edge of the world.
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