Recently we have visited the city of Orvieto. This city is about 130 km north of Rome and it’s located on the hill, so that it offers stunning views of the surrounding valley.
However, in order to enjoy this view, first you have to take the funicular from the railway station to the upper city. Only 15 minutes later (travel time is only 114 seconds) and you're at the top, not far from St. Patrick's Well. It is truly worth seeing! This well was built in the XVI century and goes deep down for the 53 meters! According to my opinion, they were able to dig such a structure only because the hill consists of volcanic tuff. The well has a shape of a cylinder and has 70 windows for natural illumination. Two independent passages that descend along the walls of the well spirally are connected only at the bottom. These passages are rather wide, as it was necessary to have enough room for donkeys bringing up the water. One old legend says that this well is the entrance to Hell. Another one promises a riddance from sins and unlimited wealth to those who go all the way down and then climb back up.
If you climb all the way up Torre del Moro you can see almost the entire city. It is very compact and still retains a medieval charm.
Orvieto is famous for its Gothic cathedral, the Duomo.
But the more impressive, according to my opinion, is an underground labyrinth of caves and tunnels. There are lots of them; it is a real underground city! The Etruscans started all this about 3000 years ago. They used to dig deep wells since on the top of the rock there was not water. Then gradually the underground caves became more and more spacious. This happened because the city size was small and the households could not grow in width. Thus, many families had additional space under the ground, where they have stored water tanks, food, wine, farming tools, and even kept cattle and pigeons. In one of such caves a medieval millstone and olive oil press were found. Horses or donkeys rotated those millstones. Now you can imagine the dimensions of these caves! The most of these caves remain a private property and are off limits for a visitor.
I also have the photo of this sad tree and, according to my opinion, your impression remain incomplete without it!
