Day 2: Orvieto, San Pietro, and More

Phew, what a long day! I actually slept better last night than I have in a long time - take that, jetlag! Woke up with my alarm at 7:10 and got ready quickly because I had an 8:22 Intercity train to Orvieto that I had already booked (at half price by booking in advance). Got breakfast at the cafe my B&B associates with. Nutella croissant never a bad way to start the day. Bought bus tickets (following my Italian victory of asking a newsstand if they sold them - in Italian!) and took the bus to the station. I never realized how massive Termini is. It's basically a shopping mall combined with a train station that has more than 30 tracks. Anyway, after a short delay, the train set off and arrived in Orvieto a little over an hour later.

Orvieto is lovely, but, really, not all that much different from the other hilltop towns I've seen. The duomo is ridiculous, however. And it has this amazing system of over 1200 underground caves. Now they offer a tour so I took the English one at 11:15 for 6 euros. Orvieto was originally settled by the Etruscans, so you have ancient olive oil mills/presses, quarries, and ... pigeon homes. Wandered around a bit more and grabbed a quick focaccia lunch at a bakery, followed by a delicious gelato. One shop had gorgeous olive wood stuff, reminding me of my favorite shop in Siena, however, the owner greeted everyone in English and there was a sign outside saying "$ accepted here" - I refused to buy anything just on principle. Made my way back to the duomo and took the bus to the funiculaire to the station and bought a 2pm ticket back, arriving in Rome a little after 3pm.