Today was a day of Funiculars and Churches. We visited Todi and Orvieto which are two towns perched on top of steep hills and full of churches.
At our wine tasting last night we sat with an Australian couple who spoke highly of Todi and really recommended we visit it. Ton and I talked about it on the walk back to François but had decided to pass. But when I looked at the route from Montefalco to Orvieto it turned out it passed thru Todi so it became a no brainer to stop for a couple of hours.
The hill Todi is located on is quite steep and it began with an 18 degree climb for about 2 kilometers where I used all of the gears François has including first for the last 100 meters or so. It was the first time he has ever struggled so much taking on a hill. Once we parked in the lot we still had to take a Funicular up another 300 feet or so to the main part of town.
If the weather had cooperated the views would be stunning, but it was fogged in. At the end we caught a little break and Ton got a picture of the valley below the town thru the fog which is at the top of the article.
The main square in town was nice as was the cathedral. The town was pretty quiet and with the gray skies and the gray stone of the towns buildings we were looking for a little color. The Church of Nunziation filled that void with its interior. It is a beautiful church. After the church we decided to head back down to François and over to Orvieto.
After settling into our air we walked over to take the funicular about 500 feet up from the train station to the platform at the base of the town. Our first stop was the Duomo or Cathedral. It took over 300 years to complete and there have been multiple renovations that have resulted in new art being added to the exterior.
It is one of the larger cathedrals we have visited and it is considered one of the most beautiful Gothic Cathedrals. The combination of art work and stone bas -reliefs is quite impressive.
The main hall of the interior is sparsely decorated except for a series of large sculptures of Saints that run down either side of the worship area. The columns are quite large and geometrically aligned so that they give the impression of a forest.
While the main hall is sparsely decorated the two chapels that form the cross in the design of the cathedral are spectacularly decorated by many of the masters of Italian art.
A lot of time now we make a quick pass thru a Cathedral and move on. But the chapels in the Orvieto Cathedral grabbed our attention.
Each panel was fascinating. They were painted by several masters of Italian art including Michelangelo’s teacher. The art in the Orvieto Cathedral was said to be the inspiration for Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine chapel.
We spent so much time looking at the paintings that we both walked out of the Cathedral with sore necks from looking up. Ton had a hard time selecting the pictures to send me from the many she had taken. I think she was also getting a little revenge on the Assisi Cathedral for forbidding photos.
We spent another hour or so taking in more sites in Orvieto. It is a much larger city than I expected. But the architecture was much like that of other cities we have visited lately.
We returned to our Sosta (aire) by the rail station for the evening to try to figure our next stop. Last night we were in a quiet Sosta next to vineyards, tonight we are parked about 200 yards from a high speed rail track between Rome and Milan with bullet trains going by at 130mph every 10 minutes or so. Not quite as charming.