In the fertile valley of the Tiber, amid gentle hills, there is Orvieto, an isolated city, almost inaccessible , with its bell towers, the towers and the maze of roofs and travertine houses. Orvieto offers to visitors the charm of a city founded by the Etrurians, which was shaped as it is now in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. A cultural itinerary to discover the secrets of its churches, convents, majestic papal residences and to see the numerous parades and recollections of historical events which have been held in the streets of this Italian treasure for almost one thousand years. It is also a tasty occasion to try, in typical inns, the delicious cuisine of the Umbria tradition.  

The city of Orvieto exists in symbiosis with the tuff cliff on which it stands, an extraordinary example of the integration of nature by the work of man.

An example of the fact that our ancestors were aware of this relationship between architecture and nature is the inscription on the famous well of San Patrizio which reads: quod natura munimento inviderat industria adiecit (What nature denied for defence - in this case water - was added by the work of man).

Visiting this town means journeying through history, for traces of each and every period of the almost three thousand years of its existence crop up everywhere in this preconstituted physical entity.

The two statues of Boniface Vlll set in the city gates at the opposite ends of the town suggest an ideal itinerary for the tourist of today, for the Pope entered the town through the Porta Soliana, known later, after the "Rocca" or Fortezza dell'Albornoz was built, as Porta Rocca, and he left through the Porta Maggiore.

Boniface Vlll was anything but a tourist and had even been Capitano del Popolo in Orvieto, yet somehow these two statues, which earned him no less than a charge of idolatry, can serve as symbols both of the attention the city of Orvieto so truly merits, and the traditional hospitality of its inhabitants.

Nowadays one no longer has to reach the top of the cliff on a mule, for a modern system of "alternative mobility" provides an access to the town that is both easy to use and fascinating with the funicular (run by water in the nineteenth century and now completely modernised) at one end and a lift (to which escalators are to be added) at the other, signs that the old historical centre, built on a human scale, has been returned to citizens and tourists alike and is once more the realm of the pedestrian.

In the early Middle Ages the rock of Orvieto was once more seen as an ideal natural bulwark and the new urban centre took shape around the year thousand. It reached its zenith in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and its unique urban layout is still to all extents what it was then.

The most representative public buildings - the Town Hall or Palazzo Comunale, the Palazzo del Popolo, the Duomo or Cathedral, and the Palazzo dei Sette rose side by side with the older churches such as San Giovenale, Sant'Andrea, - and the convents of San Domenico, San Francesco, Sant'Agostino and Santa Maria dei Servi, the complex of the Papal Palace - and the private palaces and tower houses of the aristocracy.

The medieval city-state, with Orvieto at the centre of an extensive territory, achieved its highest civic and political expression in the free commune: the Guilds and Trades developed, providing the population with a wealth of finely made objects, while life in the city continued on its busy way, through periods of peace and turmoil, with the passing of time marked by the strokes of the Clock of Maurizio, the first automaton of its kind to regulate the working hours.

 This year there is the 8th edition of Orvieto con Gusto.

The overall aim of the initiative is to promote the 'piacere del gusto' or joy of tasting real food' through the support of typical products and wines which are in danger of disappearing due to the industrialisation of the food manufacturing process and global pressures.

Such items which may be saved in time include 'violino di capra al pomodorino al piennolo' and 'caciocavallo podolico alla mela Rosa dei Monti Sibillini'. Over 400 products are in immediate danger of extinction.

At various points there are tables where it is possible to sample flavours that are disappearing fast from our daily diet and need rediscovering and protecting: 

Serate Golose - at the Enoteca Regionale try bread and medieval soups with fine wine from the 'Strada dei Vini Etrusco-Romana'.

Olive oil tasting - experts take you through extra virgin.

Mercatino dei Sapori - a market in Piazza San Giovanni to discover the history of food and other products from the Orvieto area.

Umbria is one of Italy's most delicious regions and as well as the famous olive oil and wine includes such fine products as Norcia ham and Castelluccio lentils.

The typical dishes can be described as both refined and rustic and the 9 day Orvieto con Gusto in the first 2 weeks of October is worth a visit.

The event revolves around tastings, itineraries, special meals in the restaurants of the city, markets, exhibitions etc.

http://www.argoweb.it/orvieto/orvieto.uk.html

http://www.bellaumbria.net/Orvieto/photographic-gallery_eng.htm

http://www.discoveritalia.com/cgwe/cittaFaiDaTe.asp?lingua=en&IDcitta=29