Umbria: Orvieto

Orvieto is a city I've wanted to visit for many years. We made reservations for a hotel near the Duomo and I'll always remember driving the Volvo through the city streets the first evening, turning a narrow street corner to arrive upon the Duomo's golden pink-tinted facade. If there's an award for Best Duomo Facade in Italy, this one wins, hands down. And the Luca Signorelli affreschi (frescoes) were beyond stunning. Another precursor to the Sistine Chapel and a grand example of the church vividly illustrating hell and all things related, to generate fear amongst its followers. Brilliantly done, mates.


A classmate of mine has opened his own print studio in Orvieto. We went to visit him in his laboratorio. He specializes in a photo-lithography process reproducing antique prints, and adds color with aquarello (watercolor). This is an example of one of his works and a photo of his Bendini press from Bologna. It was great seeing Andrea again after he's been away from Firenze for a month and I look forward to meeting up with him again in Roma in a few weeks. He's so talented and it's cool to watch him develop into a professional artisan, that is, when he's not playing basket (basketball).




Il pozzo di San Patrizio (St. Patrick's Well) is a deep well that was built in 1527 to supply water to Orvieto in the event of siege. The ingenious design of the well has opposing doors that lead to spiraling staircases down to the water, built in such a way that those descending with their mules would never meet those ascending in the opposite direction. We enjoyed this quasi-spelunking adventure.





Dad took this photo on his morning walk. Can't blame him, really.



Related links:
> Orvieto
> Il Pozzo San Patrizio