Day 11 - Orvieto - The Etruscans

May 01, 2025

Orvieto - The Etruscans

We headed out for breakfast this morning since our hotel/apartment didn't provide it. The name of our hotel is Hotel Michelangeli, which we wondered about since we saw the name in other places around town. Turns out it's a famous local artisan family who did wood carvings. We had also seen various wood carvings all around town, which we now connected to the artist’s family name.

After breakfast we met up with our tour guide Graziella. She was a wonderful source of information about Orvieto and the Etruscans, as well as the later history of the town, and of Italy in general.

Group photo including Graziella

Cortona and Orvieto were both Etruscan cities during their height from around 800BC to 0AD. As noted, we had visited the archeology museum in Cortona a couple days ago, which was fascinating. However, there are no remaining ruins in Cortona. Orvieto however, does have them and that is one of the reasons for our visit here.

Graziella explained how Orvieto was the principal city of the Etruscans due to a temple that existed outside of Orvieto. The Etruscan city-state leaders would meet each year at Orvieto near the temple to conduct their business. The temple site is currently being excavated, so we were not able to visit. We may have to return in a few years. The two main ruins we did visit are another temple inside the city built for their god Tinia, and their necropolis, where they buried their dead in a city like structure.

All that now remains of the temple are the foundations which we were able to see, and an artists rendering of what the temple may have looked like.

Explaining the various rocks

used to build over the centuries

Reconstruction of the temple.

Stairs should be width of the building.

The necropolis was fascinating. Located outside of the Etruscan city, it looked like a town/city itself. Small buildings with streets laid out in a grid. Each small tomb/ building housed a "family" and contained various artifacts people believed they would need in their afterlife. The buildings are now empty, but there was a small museum at the necropolis which showed some of the artifacts recovered from the site, similar to what we saw in Assisi.

Actual Etruscan tombs.

The others are real but have been reconstructed.

Family name starting with “I am” is over each tomb.

Reads from right to left.

We finished up our tour with a visit to some caves located under a house in town. Pozzo Della Cava. Throughout Orvieto history the inhabitants built caves below their houses that included wells, workshops, and storage rooms. The constant cool temps were ideal. As modern construction happened, the caves were discovered, and gave clues to ancient daily life.

Home where caves and well were

found while cleaning cellar.

Molds

View of Medieval part of town

After a lovely lunch at a place recommended by our guide, we headed over to the Orvieto Duomo, built in 14th century. The cathedral is quite impressive. It was built after a local priest, while breaking bread, saw blood drip from the bread. Allegedly Christ’s blood. This miracle generated alot of interest in the area and the Pope commissioned a new Cathedral based on this miracle. The inside is quite impressive, especially paintings by a famous local painter, Luca Signorelli. It is said that Michelangelo used these paintings as inspiration for the Sistine Chapel.