We spent most of the day in Orvieto. The first thing we did was go inside the Duomo, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. There wasn't too much decoration in the main part, but there was a lot in one of the smaller rooms. After that we went on a tour of the Underground City.
Basically, Orvieto is a town on top of a hill, but it used to be an Etruscan town (those are the people who lived in Italy before the Romans). Since the hill is mostly made up of soft volcanic rock, the Etruscan's dug into it to create more room. The town was abandoned and re-started in the medieval period, when the tunnels and caves were added to. The tour we took went into only two of about 1200 caves, most of which are private and can only be accessed through people's houses, so they're used as cellars. The first one we went into started as an Etruscan chapel of some sort. But then the medieval people added to it, creating an olive oil press.
They did this because the temperature and humidity was always more or less constant underground. The added part of the tunnel also cut through an old Etruscan well. The second cave system we went into was mostly medieval, and they were used as pigeon coops. There were little holes cut into the sides of the rooms for the pigeons to nest in, and windows for them to go outside. Keeping pigeons was apparently easier than keeping chickens, and pigeon is still a common meal in Orvieto (maybe elsewhere, as well, I don't know).I did take pictures in the caves with my camera, but that tablet wouldn't have worked.
After the tour, we visited a nearby archaeology museum that had mostly pots and some other things. There were also two rooms with frescos set up, which were pretty well preserved. Again, no tablet pictures. Sorry!
Another random thing that Megan was excited about was that there just happened to be a Lamborghini show or something going through the city. Apparently they just tour around Italy. Because of that, there were children everywhere! We assumed they were on school trips. They were very loud and obnoxious. We had to take the cable car down with them and it was terrible. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention yesterday that we had to take a cable car up to the old part of Orvieto from the train station.
Finally, we got on a train and went to Rome. Once arriving, we ambled around the station for a bit trying to find a tourist information booth, because we forgot to write down the address of the hostel we had to get to.This one was booked along with some other people who are going on the dig. When we finally found a booth, it turned out the hostel was a five minute walk away. After dropping off our bags we went out to dinner.
We've been here for about an hour now and the other people still haven't shown up. They checked in before us and left their luggage, but they must be out exploring or something. Tomorrow, we're heading for Cerveteri which is the modern town beside Caere, the site we're digging.
Oh, the other people just arrived! Good night!
(Edited and extra photos added May 2019)
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