Day 1 was our tour of the upper part of Orvieto; Day 3,we toured Orvieto Underground.
Orvieto is a really, really old city, and every empire or great movement that touched it left its mark on the city. Originally, it was founded by the Etruscans - the people who came before the Romans. It was also a Roman city, a Papal city, and of course now it's an Italian city.
Underneath the city is a bunch of volcanic rock which could be mined for cement; during its time as a Papal city, Orvietans used the underground caverns for businesses. Trade in the underground included wine, oil, pigeons, and mining cement. you can also see some of the old Etruscan wells underneath the city. Because it's all volcanic rock, the Etruscans had to dig very deep. One well that we looked at goes down 80 meters - nearly twenty stories.
Pictures:
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| An Etruscan well - notice the foot holes going down. |
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| A place they kept pigeons |
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| More pigeon nests |
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| A bomb shelter for the hospitalized during WWII. Orvieto was a protected city - meaning no one was supposed to bomb it in order to protect its historical points - but the valley below it was bombed. The bomb shelter was used when the valley was under attack. |
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| A view of the valley from outside the caves |
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