Right after breakfast, our driver arrived and we were off to Orvieto. The ride over was a pleasant one – beautiful scenery and sunny skies. It took just a little over an hour and fifteen minutes before we arrived.

We are staying at the Hotel Duomo in Orvieto. It is located off to the side of the Duomo and is convenient to everything we need.

As we had arrived early, our room wasn’t ready so we just sat in the lounge area until it was. I’m sure the coughing had nothing to do with the speed by which we got into our room.

Our room was pleasant, not luxurious, but it had everything we needed. Since it was on a corner, we also had two windows for plenty of light.

I was a little out of it, so Sue went exploring a bit. She managed to find a restaurant close by for dinner, found a pharmacy and got her first look at the Duomo.

While I’ve read about it, you don’t hear many people talk about the Duomo in Orvieto. Which is a shame, because it’s beautiful.

That afternoon, we went to the pharmacy and the pharmacist was able to give us some cough medicine, throat spray and lozenges. We started taking it as soon as we got back to the room.

A little nap helped before we went to dinner. Dinner was ok, but nothing to write home about. Everything just seemed to miss by a little bit.

While we were eating, it began to rain. Then fog rolled in and it turned chilly – we really thought the travel gods were ganging up on us.

After a rough night, and another cancelled activity, we decided that we should try and seek some medical consult. We have travel insurance from Generali Global Assistance, so we called the number on the travel policy to see how they could help us.

The answer in short was they didn’t. After spending an hour on the phone giving them all the relevant information, the answer was to try and go to a hospital as they had no referral for us. What???

Not only that, but despite being primary insurance, they said we would have to pay and then submit the charges for review and possible reimbursement. What a crock!

Ok, enough about that. We decided to push on and enjoy what we could. With the sun shining, we headed out to the piazza to visit the Duomo and its museum.

Tickets that let you visit both places were only 5€ each and were good for two days. The Duomo is huge, with many beautiful sculptures and paintings throughout.

However, there was one side chapel that was really disturbing. The images were all very hellish in nature and looked to be the place you sent people to scare them into a second collection.

I guess I may have answered my own question about why the Orvieto Duomo doesn’t get the attention that others do. The changes and restorations throughout the years have left it feeling somewhat soulless. At least in my opinion.

The best way to remove images like that is – lunch! We found a great little place in the piazza to get sandwiches and a glass of Orvieto wine. The sandwiches were porchetta with cheese and were delicious.

The following day was once again beautiful. It seems that the rain waits until the evening to make its appearance and that’s fine with us.

We used the second half of our ticket and went to the Duomo museum. The museum houses many of the objects that had been removed during the various restorations. There were original paintings and sculptures, some dating back to the 1300’s. We were glad we decided to visit.

Many of those items were interesting, especially a painting of Saint Mary Magdalene and a painting and mosaic of the Virgin Mary.

Tomorrow we leave for Rome. I thought Orvieto was interesting and I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see the other places around town related to the Etruscan civilization. Next time?

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We feel much better and are enjoying Rome! 😎

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