Civita di Bagnoregio

Rickie Stevie characterizes Civita di Bagnoregio as "Italy's ultimate hill town." I suppose the residents--all of them new gentrifiers--are hoping he can do for them what he did for Gimmelwald. Civita used to be tied to Bagnoregio, but the ridge spur connecting them has eroded away, leaving Civita out on an island by itself, connected only by a foot-bridge of sorts. The last traditional resident left a few years ago, in her 90s, and Civita has come to be known as the "city of the dead." As much out of curiosity as anything else, we drove the few miles from Orvieto, took the bus to the bridge, and walked into Civita during a thunderstorm. We spent the night at the camper-stop in the middle of Bagnoregio.

Orvieto from another angle

The main drag in Bagnoregio, during the pausa, when I 
walked out to the foot-bridge en reconnaisance; at least 
it was shaded

And there it is, Civita, hill town, or better, hill hamlet

Spring in Civita

Church, tower, on main piazza

Perhaps the most interesting thing there: in the 16th century, 
many churches, including Civita's  went a more austere route, 
plastering-over and white-washing all the frescoes we now 
regard as priceless; in 1695, the great earthquake occurred,

shaking the plaster off the forgotten fresco; since known as 
the Madonna of the Earthquake

A bit of the badlands-like environs

Looking up the main drag

No lack of beautiful little scenes

The communal lavanderia; running water came to Civita in the early 1900s

Entrance to the Palazzo--only this wall of which remains; the rest fell down the cliff

Bruschetta with local sausage and cheese and tomatoes and olives, etc.

Orvieto Duomo Reliefs

The facade of the cathedral has four giant lower panels on its pilasters (also great bronze images of the gospel writers' symbols; great bronze doors, etc.) with some of the best and best preserved reliefs we have seen, done by Lorenzo Maitani between 1320 and 1330. They cover all the usual biblical and legendary topics, and I just post a few of the best known...

First of the four panels, old testament stuff; "tree" of Jesse

God working in Adam's rib-cage area

"No wonder you had chest pains!"

Sharing a snack

Predictable results

Annunciation

Adoration

Other Adoration

Flight

Always our favorite, Damnation (protective plastic)

Detail

"Not another cathedral!"

c

Orvieto Duomo

Maybe it was the change of pace from the architecture one sees in Rome and in the south, but we really enjoyed the Duomo in Orvieto...

Gothic! and zebra stripes too!

The great facade; the reliefs on the lowest level warrant their 
own post; so we'll go inside this magnificent 13th-15th century 
cathedral

Nave

Although there is some traditional stained glass in the chancel 
and elsewhere, most of the windows are done in translucent 
alabaster

Gotta' have a relic; this the 13th century altar cloth onto which blood fell from 
a consecrated host, thus "proving" the (recent, 1215) theory of transubstantiation

But what we liked best was the Nuova Cappella, and Luca Signorelli's 1499-1504 
fresco cycle of the Last Judgment (and damnation, etc.)

They should have had Signorelli do the Sistine Chapel judgment; IMHO

Alas, the frescoes are up pretty high in the chapel, and I had to hurry the photos 
too;  there are good representations on the web; oh yes, the ceiling and other 
work is by Fra Angelica, and, fittingly, there are many representations of Dante 
in the lower tiers; an amazing place

Orvieto 2

Nice bench

Umbrian and Tuscan towns are often divided traditionally into

quarters, each with their own emblems, identities, etc.

In an old palazzo, now an apartment buidling I think

Umbrian countryside

Cat, dog, and kid--always an entertaining combination

View from the ramparts

Orvieto's great well and cistern; for a few euros you can walk

down and back up the 200 steps

A Train of Great Velocity (as the French call it) bullets toward

Rome

The camper-stop was sandwiched between not one but two sets

of tracks, the Trains of Great Velocity and the Trains of Not So

Great Velocity; although I was prepared with my earplugs, they

seemed not to run through the night; maybe there was a strike...

Us at Orvieto, taken by a couple from Lewiston, ID,

practically neighbors

Orvieto 1

Initially we were drawn to Orvieto for the great wine. We did buy a few bottles of the classico. But there was much else of interest in this old hill town. The Duomo, with its great reliefs and Signorelli frescoes will require its own posts.

Orvieto on approach, the great cathedral to the right, the city

center in the, um, center; we found the camper-stop at the

train station below the city and took the funicular up to it

These sorts of scenes everywhere

Ditto

Towers everywhere

13th century municipal building, still in use

Alleys like this all over, with buttresses and

arches between them

Pasta in the shapes of Italy's great monuments; at olive oil

tastings, we quickly figured out, you get free wine and bread and

cheese and olive spreads, and olive oil, too

The big clock tower

Vicki in the big main piazza