October 1-2
Written October 2-7
Dear Family and Friends,
We left Pompeii Monday morning and started a long (400km) leg of our return trip -- long for us anyway. Traffic was heavy through Naples and stop and go through several construction sites. There were plenty of indications that getting through here without a scratch would be a significant success. Once out of the Naples metropolitan area, the rest of the way north was OK, except for crazy drivers.
A map, a mirror impaled on barrier, and a particularly nasty driver.  
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Since Orvieto is a narrow-street hill town and our
hotel was in the city center, we first parked on the edge of town and
walked in to get further instructions. This is often a good idea, although it does make the settling-in process a bit
longer. In this case, the Hotel Grand Italia parking lot did
indeed require some preparation. Marianne did the driving forward
through the twisty, rock-sided, cobble-stone streets and I did the last
fifty meters backing into the small lot. I think I am tired of
hill towns. (Nice room, however.)We missed the real lunch hour, but managed a "snack" and a few glasses of wine as we tried to work up enthusiasm for one more quaint Italian tourist village. Wine helped. Orvieto is called "the quintessential Italian hill town" by one of our guide books, but we managed little more than some wandering in the streets, a visit to the cathedral, one decent meal and a fun picnic on the hotel balcony. It's not the town's fault, but we struggled a bit to make Orvieto memorable.
I did try some evening and early morning photo sessions and, while I enjoyed the process, I can't really say the resulting photos will win any awards. At least I had a nice walks.
Town layout and one of my walks. 
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The Duomo or Cathedral is truly amazing.     Interior pictures were not allowed, but somehow this ended up on Marianne's iPhone. 
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Street scenes.    |
An early morning shoot in San Francisco fog.    |
An evening mix of high-dynamic-range (HDR) and "regular" pictures.    |
Evening scenes.   |
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Overall conclusion: If you want one hill town to go to, Orvieto is a good candidate. As a fifth hill town, it was hard to get excited.
Regards,
John and Marianne