Italy: Day 7 - Orvieto

We got up early this morning. Caleb W. needed to get a permanent cast on his finger that was broken. We were done with this by 10:00 or so. Peter was able to get the weekend off! We had planned on taking the train to Firenze to spend the week with our friends John and Liz. Since Peter was able to have 3 days off in a row (one of a few times he has had 3 whole days off) they decided to drive us! What fun! There was a little bit of rain as we were driving. We spent about 3 hours going North. We wanted to go to a place in Umbria called "Monster Park" where the kids could climb on the old statues and stone carvings. We got there and it really started raining. Since it was quite expensive to get in - we sat in the car, discussed our options and had a picnic while still in the car. We decided to go to Orvieto instead. It was only another 30 minutes. Wow! I am so glad that we did this instead. This was Europe like I was expecting it! There was a bit of rain when we first got there - but then it cleared off and we had a great time wandering around this great little town perched on the top of a hill. We parked at the bottom, rode the tram to the top and were able to go in the Duomo. Here are some of my pictures from that day:

The town is so small that they really encourage everyone to park in the large, free car park at the bottom of the hill. You pay a minimal fee, ride the funicolare to the top. The price of the ticket also includes a bus ride to the Duomo.

The town was great. I did not feel rushed, or hurried in any way like I did in both Roma and Napoli. By the time we were done with the Duomo, the rain had stopped. We loved looking around at all of the shops.

There were great opportunities for photos. I took many!