Week 1: Getting Settled and Diving In
(Due to having to figure out some blogging technicalities, this post is a week late. But better late than never: here's my take on our first week in Orvieto) Ciao! Saluti da Orvieto! View from the clifftop of Orvieto Today marks the end of week one of ART in Orvieto 2017 , and it’s been a week of both getting settled and diving right in. Orvieto itself is a clifftop town in Italy’s Umbria region. There is evidence of a prominent city existing here since the Etruscan period, and remains of an Etruscan necropolis stand at the base of the cliffs. So Orvieto has long been a notable town, but it rose to prominence in the 1260s when Pope Urban IV commissioned a magnificent cathedral and papal palace to be built in the town following the occurrence of a miracle. Side and facade of Orvieto's duomo The story goes that at that time in the nearby city of Bolsena, a priest was presiding over the Eucharist when blood began dripping from the host and onto the al