8/2 -- Orvieto

This morning we had to be out of our place by 10, and we had a 9:00 tickets for St. Patrick’s Well and the luggage storage room at the train station didn’t open until 9, so the host of our apartment said we could store the bags at a certain cafe if we made a purchase there. So we had breakfast and left our bags off to the side of the main seating area. It turns out our apartment host didn't call the cafe owner (his cousin) to tell him about this arrangement until after we dropped our bags off, so these people essentially just let random people leave their bags there. We felt a little sketchy about it, but had our passports and money with us and reminded ourselves that the bags contained only material items that could be replaced. To which Julia said, “But Bella is in my suitcase, she can’t be replaced.” And Owen added, “And Rocky.” Bella and Rocky are their stuffed dogs that made the trip with us (both of which were actually my stuffed dogs when I was their age). Thankfully when we arrived back to get them after the well, Bella, Rocky, and all the rest of our stuff appeared to be untouched.

St. Patrick’s Well was built in the 1530s when Pope Clement VII had retreated to Orvieto because Rome was under siege. He wanted to have a water source in case Orvieto was taken, and the well also had secret passageways where he could hide in the event of an attack. It was created in a double helical fashion so that the mules carrying water could go down one way and up another. It was quite spectacular, and my non-engineer brain was blown at how they could have done this that long ago.

After retrieving our bags from the cafe, we took them down to the luggage storage spot at the train station (we had the funicular all to ourselves on this trip), which ironically was also in a cafe there — but was in the back and not in the dining area, then took the funicular back up to wander around Orvieto for a bit. We found this incredible olive wood carving shop where they had the most amazing pieces. We ended up purchasing a beautiful serving bowl, as well as a ladle, salad tongs, and a “magic” spoon that has a trough down the middle so that you can stir with one side, then tip it up and have the sauce run down the trough (cooling off in the process) to a smaller spoon on the other side so that you can taste while cooking without double dipping. The bowl we had to have shipped home, so we won’t get it for a few weeks, but we are excited for this souvenir from our trip. They also showed us this giant piece of wood from a 1,000 year old olive tree that they were carving to be the base of a coffee table for someone in Honolulu. The shop owner said he had never seen a piece of wood like it in 30 years.

After wandering, we went to Pozzo della Cava. Orvieto has a series of underground tunnels and rooms and this is an area that has been excavated and open to explore. Some of the rooms had been “renovated” so many times, they couldn’t tell what their initial purpose was. Pretty impressive for the Middle Ages.

We then headed to the train station. We had learned earlier in the day that our train out of Orvieto was delayed, putting us in Rome after our next train to Naples was scheduled to depart. I tried talking to a ticket agent who kept saying “No problema, get new ticket in Roma.” I felt slightly less chill than that, but since there wasn’t anything I could do, kind of had to be chill. (The rest of my family is inherently more chill than I am, so they easily rolled with it.) And as it turned out, although our train left Orvieto 23 minutes later than scheduled, we arrived in Rome only 6 minutes late and made it to our Naples train. No problema, indeed.

Orvieto was another wonderful surprise. Yesterday I said I felt like it was better as a long day trip from somewhere else, but today I wished we had another day there to relax and finish the hike and wander a bit more. Jourdan and I are already fantasizing about buying a house just outside the city to be a home base for future Italian holidays. (This was a conversation that prompted Julia to ask us not to talk about retirement because it made her sad to think about a time that she won’t live at home with us. So sweet and also I know those feelings won’t last much longer.)

The kids made up a card game on the train from Orvieto they called Poker War and it kept them occupied the whole ride. I couldn’t quite follow the rules (possibly didn’t try that hard), but the cards seemed to be both cards and money? But they had fun and didn’t fight so it is now my favorite card game. We had business class seats from Orvieto to Rome and then Rome to Naples (fancy!), and then from Naples the train to Sorrento was basically a subway, but thankfully we weren’t the only ones with luggage on it so clearly they are used to tourists. (Although that also made it a crowded train.)

We arrived in Sorrento and found our apartment, another 4th floor walk up, a loft, with an incredible view, but this time with decent air conditioning thankfully. Sorrento reminds us of a touristy San Diego (she says, fully aware that she is a tourist), but it’s gorgeous and is close to the Amalfi Coast, so that’s why we’re here.

I read about a lemon grove in which you could walk around so we went there; a lot of Italy’s limoncello comes from this area — we weren’t really able to walk around a ton, but Owen and I enjoyed it. Jourdan and Russell mocked me about wanting to visit a lemon grove for the rest of the night. I had a lemoncello spritz at dinner afterwards in honor of it, but I didn’t love it. Dinner was otherwise pretty good. After dinner we came back to the apartment, started a load of laundry, watched a show and went to bed.