Side trip to Orvieto - Orvieto, Italy
Orvieto, Italy
This morning we left Freedom Traveller Hostel behind us and went to the the train station to catch the 8:30 train. Unfortunately, we were unable to make a reservation at the ticket machine as we had thought, and the lines at the ticket counter were too long. So we waited around a bit for the next train bound for Orvieto.
Shortly after we boarded the train there was a large commotion with angry people arguing in Italian. Not knowing what was being said, we tried to take cues from the locals surrounding us (as it continued for some minutes) whether this was going to be a problem. The lady across from us finally explained that the people had seated themselves in a first class compartment, and had second class tickets. We had boarded the first class car, and were surprised to hear that the spacious seats we were enjoying were considered second class. Best we can figure, they didn't have enough first class passengers over time and decided that only the compartments would be first class. In any case, we weren't about to move now that there had been such a fuss.
Not too long after that, we saw another couple of backpackers moved out of the first class compartments by the conductor. Then the conductor checked our tickets. Seeing that we are supposed to be in first class, he actually kicked us *into* first class, despite us saying we were fine where we were. Too funny. Oh well, the air conditioning worked much better in the compartment anyway.
When we arrived in Orvieto, we took the funicular up to the old part of town. The church there was worth the stop alone! It was striped, and had an amazing facade. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside, but my favorite sight of the day was the Cappella della Madonna di San Brizio (San Brizio's Chapel). It is a fresco that covers the entire chapel, and depicts scenes of the end of time. It is amazing. Apparently, Michealangelo came and saw this and drew inspiration for the Sistine Chapel. It was amazing.
After our tour of the inside of the church, we got gelato and walked around the rest of town. We poked into some shops including one filled with little toys that was a lot of fun. Then we went back down to the train (via shuttle bus and then funicular again) and started off towards Florence. :)
This was a neat little town and a fun side trip on our way to Florence. Again, it was something that we had seen on Rick Steves' show. The whole town being crammed on top of a hill made for great views and architecture both. Today was the first, and certainly not the last, where we had some trouble with our train schedule. Part of the trouble was being away from Switzerland and Austria where the trains are much more efficient, but mostly it is just more difficult to travel on a train pass in Italy and France. This was a change from my previous trip and it took some getting used to. We were able to get everywhere we needed to go, it just took a bit longer and was more work than I had expected.