Umbria & Tuscany
Thursday–Tuesday October 25–30, 2001
Orvieto is built on a hill of tufa, a soft rock. This photograph shows the town, and vines growing grapes for Orvieto’s famous white wine. Orvieto is a tentative Unesco World Heritage site.
Siena is a great hill city and is worthy of a visit by anyone going to Italy. Siena is home to one of the world’s first banks (still in business and doing well, thank you) and somewhere nearby double entry bookkeeping was invented about 500 years ago.
Siena has another claim to fame—its duomo is not on the city’s main square, but off to one side of the central area. It is a great building, but perhaps an even greater building is the City Hall, which is located on the main square.
The sky was overcast when this photograph was taken, so the colors are somewhat washed out. This wonderful building is from the late 13th century, and the tower, which does not fit in the photograph, is over 330 feet high. The Palio horse race is held in this square twice a year.
Siena is a Unesco World Heritage site.
Not far from Siena is another hill town, San Gimignano, also a Unesco World Heritage site. The town has over a dozen towers where rich families could fend off unwanted warring visitors back in medieval times. The town is a nice place in which to walk around, and there is a park near the top that is a pleasant spot for a picnic.
Pitigli (belowO is another hill town in Tuscany. Its history is pre–Roman. Etruscans lived here. It is in a remote spot and does not receive as many visitors as San Gimignano.
Assisi is another hill city and devoted to the memory of Saint Francis, who lived here during the last years of his life. There are two large basilicas in town, a lower one which was finished in 1230 and a fancier one sitting right on top of it, and which was finished in 1253.
Saint Francis died in 1226. What happened next is fantastic—the lower basilica was built by people devoted to Saint Francis in less than two years from the start of construction. Many pilgrims visit the town, which is well worth a visit and, yes, a Unesco World Heritage site. Saint Francis is buried in the lower basilica.
We arrived back in Italy and visited Assisi in Umbria. We also visited Orvieto and in Tuscany, Siena, San Gimignano and Pitigliano.
Next—a quick trip back to Milan for a flight home on All Saints Day, an important holiday in Italy.
