Attractions

The useful Carta Unica cumulative ticket for 13€ ($17) adults and 11€ ($14) students and seniors over 60 gets you into the Duomo's Cappella San Brizio, the Musei Archeologici Faina e Civico, the Torre del Moro, and the Orvieto Underground tour -- plus either one funicular plus one bus ride or 5 hours in the ex-Campo della Fiera parking lot. It's available at the tourist office, the above-mentioned sights, and the funicular depots.

Orvieto's Liquid Gold

When the matter of Luca Signorelli's payment came up in his contract to paint the Cappella San Brizio of Orvieto's Duomo, the Cathedral Works Committee decided the best way to compensate the master painter for his work was to pay him 575 ducats, provide him with an apartment, and give him "as much as he wanted of that wine of Orvieto."

The plains and low hills around Orvieto grow the grapes -- verdello, grechetto, and Tuscan varietals trebbiano and malvasia -- that go into one of Italy's great wines, a pale straw-colored DOC white called simply Orvieto Classico. A well-rounded and judiciously juicy white (often with a hint of crushed almonds), it goes great with lunch and has one of the longest documented histories of any wine in Italy. The Etruscans traded it to the farthest reaches of ancient Gaul centuries before the French were competent at winemaking, and the Romans were so fond of the stuff they raised a port on the river nearby in order to slake the Eternal City's thirst by floating amphorae-laden barges down to Rome. One of the myths on the origin of the city's name is even tied to the intoxicating spirit. In the Dark Ages, barbarian invaders looted the town and were triumphantly carrying off chalices stolen from the temples when the gold suddenly melted to a pale liquid in their hands, causing the sackers to run off in fear, shouting, "Aurum vetitum, aurum vetitum!" The "forbidden gold" was, in fact, Orvieto's famous wine, on which the barbarians subsequently became so roaring drunk the Orvietani had no trouble running them out of town.

Orvieto's wine trade is still a cornerstone of the area's economy. Most Orvieto Classico you'll run across is secco (dry), but you can also find bottles of the more traditional abboccato (semidry/semisweet), amabile (medium sweet), and dolce (sweet) varieties. The secco was created for export to satisfy the general public accustomed to the taste of bad chardonnay, and the sweeter varieties are treats seldom exported, so try them while you can. You may want to steer clear of big-name labels like Bigi -- a perfectly fine wine, but one widely exported abroad -- in favor of the smaller producers you can get only here.

To sample a glass (or buy a bottle) with a pastry or panino, or to try the quirky, zestier white called Est! Est! Est! that's produced on Lake Bolsena's shores in nearby northern Lazio, drop by the Cantina Foresi, Piazza Duomo 2 (tel. 0763-341-611). Ask to see the small, moldy cellar carved directly into the tufa. You can also tipple on a visit to one of Orvieto's friendliest shopkeepers at his enoteca/trattoria above the Pozzo della Cava excavations at La Bottega del Buon Vino, Via della Cava 26 (tel. 0763-342-373; www.pozzodellacava.it). To visit a vineyard, pick up a copy of the brochure Andar per Vigne at the direct sales/tasting office for the Barberani vineyard at Via Maitani 1, bang at the corner with Piazza del Duomo (tel. 0763-341-532 or 0763-341-820; www.barberani.it); it lists the wineries open to visitors along with the hours of tours and contact numbers.

Tunnels in the Tufa

The Orvietani have been burrowing into the soft tufa and pozzolano stone under their feet for thousands of years. The problem of providing the skyscraping city with water has been tackled since Etruscan times by digging in the ground. The Etruscans hollowed out cisterns to collect rainwater, sank wells to seek out groundwater, and carved public plumbing systems into the rocky foundations of Velzna. The practice was continued by the Romans, the people of the Middle Ages (who also used some defunct wells as rubbish dumps), and even Renaissance Pope Clement VII.

Through the ages, the man-made cavern system has also been used for wine and oil production and storage, artisan workshops, escape tunnels for nobility, and quarries for tufa building blocks and the pozzolano dust to cement them with. The official position seems to relegate this peculiar molelike tendency to the past, dating the last tunneling and the closing of the last pozzolano mine to the late 19th century. But what everyone appears to ignore are the elevator shafts the city sank through the cliff in 1996 to connect the new parking lots with Orvieto proper -- the Orvietani are still tunneling.

Besides the comune-run Grotte della Rupe caverns, many shops and other private buildings sit atop underground excavations -- scholars suspect the military base covering a fifth of the city (and closed to visitors) hides some of the finest. Perhaps the best accessible ones are under an enoteca, the Pozzo della Cava, Via della Cava 28 (tel. 0763-342-373; www.pozzodellacava.it), whose personable owner used to invite his customers to poke around his Etruscan tunneled basement gratis. Then the town decided to excavate, discovered an important historic well, set it up as an official tourist sight, and started charging admission. (Sometimes, when no one's looking, the amused shopkeeper still lets you scurry down for free.) The excavations consist of six caves containing, among other things, a few medieval refuse shafts and a kiln from 1300, an Etruscan cistern, and, of course, a well almost 4.5m (15 ft.) in diameter and more than 30m (98 ft.) deep, first used by the Etruscans and later enlarged by Pope Clement VII. It's open in the summer Tuesday through Sunday from 8am to 8pm. Admission is 3€ ($3.90) adults and 2€ ($2.60) for students, seniors, and holders of tickets to Grotte delle Rupe, Pozzo Patrizio, or the funicular.