Orvieto

So, today is somewhat of a free day.
I could be workingon a project due Monday, but instead I am taking some time to upload pictures for all of you folks so you can keep tabs with what exciting things I am up to.
Our time in Orvieto is almost up, but at least it will end with a bang.

Tonight after dinner, there are a series of horse races that will be happening in the city, I can only hope to witness those events unfold. Becuase of these races, and a series of concerts also happening tonight (and I saw kegerators there) I doubt that I will be working much tonight on our projects as well.

Tomorrow (Sunday) willbe a religious holiday. There is an elaborate setup in front of the Duomo and I have been told that fireworks and pidgeons are involved... hopefully not in conjunction... eww.

So this weekend will be a lot of big events, and the coming week will be rushed. Wednesday we will leave Orvieto for Firenze (Florence) and that will be a whirwind 4 days followed by a whirlwind 2 days in Venice. After that I will be meeting up with Stefania sometime in the 5 or so days following that to visit Massa Carrara where the Lambruschis are from!

In no specific order...
Here is the East side of the Duomo. Directly behind the Duomo is where we are staying in the villa Mercede.
This picture was taken from the top of Torre del Moro which is the clock tower you can see at the end of the last post in the middle of Orvieto. I dont remeber how many stairs they said it was to the top, but I swear is was no less than 8,000... ugh.


Hree is a picture of Il Gato, a cat that lives behind Villa Mercede that is 22 years old...


And here is a picture of caves beneath Orvieto... I will upload another better one later on:


Here is a shot of the caves (again). This is a dove cove as the tour guide called it. The people of Orvieto carved these caves into the faces of cliffs for 300 years to allow pidgeons to nest there. They were an ingenious design. The holes attracted pidgeos, the windows allowed the pidgeons to feed and drink on their own and return to their nest at their own will. Whats more, to the left of the door way, you can see a groove cut into the wall. This allowed rain water from above to be collected from the roofs above and drain into these caves. The water would pool into cisterns and the people would clean the pidgeon poo out of the caves with it. Then the people would sell the poo as fertilizer. Crazy!