Sorrento to Missanello

We left Sorrento early Monday morning to avoid the crush of traffic. The Monday after Easter is a huge holiday in Italy, a very secular holiday when everyone hops in a car and drives someplace else. The cities are deserted and the small towns and resorts are filled with day trippers. The two lane road to Sorrento was jammed with people escaping Naples. Fortunately, we were driving in the opposite direction.

Vesuvius

As we drove along the two lane road with twists and turns, we were stopped by an amazing sight. We have had wonderful weather during March and so far in April but the last two days were generally pretty poor. Overnight the rain had pounded the pavement and by the morning cold, clear air had moved in. When we have a chance to look at Vesuvius on our way out of Sorrento, we had to find a place to pull off the road. While it had rained where we were, it had snowed on the top of Vesuvius. The snow made the mountain even more striking as Vesuvius soared above Naples.

In the Apennines

The trip to Missanello goes over the Apennines to the valley of the Agri River. The highest point we saw on the GPS was about 3000 feet. The snow that had dusted Vesuvius had accumulated 4 or 5 inches on the side of the road as crossed over the highest point on our trip. Fortunately, the road was clear by the time we passed.

Welcome to Missanello

As we descended into the Agri valley the snow was visible again only in the heights. After a typical misadventure in the last 2 miles of our trip we arrived in Missanello to stay with Annette’s cousin, Maria Micucci.

Sorrento

We’re spending a few days in a town we’ve heard about but never visited. It’s a good stop for us for the Easter weekend on the way south from Orvieto. We’ll stay here a few days and then travel on to visit relatives in Missanello.

Sorrento, old and new

Sorrento is across the bay from Naples and is the home of limoncello. That’s all we knew about Sorrento before we got here. Turns out it is a three dimensional city in the sense that a flat map doesn’t really tell you everything you need to know. Roads cross on a map but, because the town is built on a very steep slope, sometimes the crossing road is 30 feet, or 60 feet, or 100 feet below. On the map the streets appear to cross in two dimensions. That can be confusing.

Our hotel is centrally located off the main piazza but despite the help of our trusty GPS, Frances, we couldn’t find the place. The GPS said that we had arrived but the hotel just wasn’t there. We retraced our route and this time noticed a street that was parallel to the street we had driven on earlier. We parked illegally, walked over, and found that the “street” was a little wider than a sidewalk. A woman police officer said what was obvious, that the street was a “stradina”, a little street that one cannot drive on. (Strada = street, the suffix ina = signifies a diminutive.)

Mt. Vesuvius and the city of Naples

With her approval we hustled our suitcases out of the car and into the hotel and stashed the car in a parking garage as quickly as possible. Sorrento is a nightmare for cars and Easter weekend is a very busy weekend.

We checked the hotel website again and there is no specific mention of the obvious problem dropping off suitcases. The nice things that people had to say, however, were accurate.

The old town of Sorrento is below and the many, many hotels are built on sites carved out of the mountainside. There lots of restaurants, pizza joints, bars, and designer shops among the hotels but the most interesting restaurant that we had read about, da Emilia, was at the very bottom of the town, almost on the shore. 

Fishing off the pier

We trekked down to the restaurant. From the bottom of the town there was a view across the bay to Vesuvius and the city of Naples spread around its flanks. Men were fishing off the docks, seemingly unaware of the designer shops and the fancy cars and the hordes of window shoppers a few hundred feet above them in the upper town. 

For our Easter lunch we had the local specialties, spaghetti alle vongole (spaghettti with clams, tiny, tender little clams cooked in the heat of the pasta) and then fritta mista (mixed fried selection of fishes and other creatures from the bay of Naples.) We also had a Caprese salad since we were near the island of Capri.

At the end of the meal we asked for a limoncello which is commonly served everywhere in Italy. Of course, this restaurant doesn’t serve limoncello (probably because it is such an obvious  request.) Instead, we were offered two complementary, homemade digestivos (alcoholic drinks served at the end of a meal as an aid to digestion.) The first was black and had a licorice taste that was palate cleansing but a little harsh. The second was very interesting, a fennel liqueur of some kind, very refreshing. 

Diner leaving Da Emilia

The fennel liqueur reminded us that Annette’s cousin in Missanello had once served raw fennel at the end of a meal to refresh people’s sense of taste and it worked very nicely. So did the fennel liqueur (though I imagine that it must sound a little strange as I write this.)

Tomorrow morning we’re off the Missanello, population 500.

Happy Easter to all. Buona Pasqua a tutti.

A new photo of Orvieto

Tomorrow we're packing up and heading south to meet relatives in southern Italy. Today we spent the morning in Montefiascone, a quiet little town about 15 miles to the south, unremarkable except that it's been a refuge for Popes in the past and it's the producer of a well-known white wine called Est! Est!! Est!!!

As we drove south from Orvieto we came upon a belvedere, a spot with a view of the city from the opposite hillside. We'll add this final panoramic photo of Orvieto to our collection. The photo is large, as large as blogspot will allow, so please click on the image you see here to zoom into the photo.

The Duomo, or Cathedral, faces the camera at the right. Near the center of the photo are some arches that support the road to the town. Our apartment was directly above the arches. The trees you see above the arches are full grown, perhaps 75 feet tall, and we look down on their tops from above.

The sheer cliffs are imposing. The Romans took Orvieto from the Etruscans by laying siege to the town. The siege lasted to two years.

A last look at a beautiful town.

Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio

Bagnoregio is a nondescript little town south of Orvieto with a long, straight street named Corso (as in "race course") which is typical of most Italian towns and cities. Near Bagnoregio is what was once, perhaps, the oldest neighborhood of the town, a little town now called Civita di Bagnoregio. Civita was built on a hilltop and was connected to what became Bagnoregio by a narrow road that ran across a narrow strip of rock that lay upon loose soil. In the 1960s the soil gave way and the road connecting Civita to Bagnoregio and the rest of the world fell into a pile of rubble down the steep slopes that surround Civita. 

Wisteria and erosion features

The little town of Civita was cut off from the world by the collapse. Soon after the government built a foot bridge to connect Civita to Bagnoregio again. The footbridge is study and strong but limited in width. Everything that supplies the town of Civita comes across the footbridge. The Civita town government has an employee who works from 12 noon to 3pm bringing supplies across the footbridge to the restaurants and shops in Civita. Each time someone uses the service, the charge is 5 Euro.

Parking lot in the distance

Only two families actually live in the town. There is a little parking lot at the Bagnoregio end of the footbridge for the people who work in Civita. And a good number of people actually work in the little, isolated town since Civita is a destination for people who are curious about the history and the nature of this particular little town.

We had our choice from among three or four full fledged restaurants, six or seven bruschetterias (places for simple, informal munching), and a couple of coffee bars. It was a beautiful day and we ate outside.

The population of the town is dominated by cats. Cats are everywhere and they seem well cared for. When we sat for lunch in a restaurant three cats took turns staring at us, hoping for something to fall to the ground.

Spring in Civita

The underlying problem for the little town of Civita is that it is built on some resistant layers of rock which in turn are laid upon much less resistant layers of rock. The cliffs are made of the resistant rock; the footbridge reaches across a span where the resistant layer of rock gave way. Rivers on either side of Civita has eroded the less resistant rock under Civita and several times in recent history the connection to Bagnoregio has been compromised. One such time was during World War II when, as the Germans retreated, they blew up a masonry bridge that connected the two towns. A wooden footbridge was built after the war but that was brought down by a collapse in 1963. The present foot bridge dates to the mid-1960s.

The mayor of Civita

Civita is more than a curiosity. Orvieto is a much larger town but the structure underlying Orvieto is the same and parts of Orvieto have been prone to landslides, too. Orvieto, however, does not have rivers undercutting the foundation of the settlement on all sides and, in general, is on a more sound footing.

For more information about Civita and other people’s reactions, see any of these:

Pictures of Civita di Bagnoregio

A sunrise/sunset photo of Civita di Bagnoregio taken by someone with patience and/or time and a really nice camera.

Google’s collection of photos of Civita di Bagnoregio including some more pictures of cats. The place is very photogenic but the place is even more interesting visually in person.

Portal to the city

Information on Civita di Bagnoregio

Rick Steves' Europe: Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio - Viterbo - Reviews of Civita di Bagnoregio - TripAdvisor

Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy: Jewel on the Hill - YouTube

Old man dressed in black
walks to Civita

For more about landslides in Civita and Orvieto, see 

http://www.wlf2.org/home/field-trips/Field%20Trip%20ORVIETO%20CIVITA%20ANCONA.pdf. 

Orvieto

We visited this town many years ago when we were young marrieds. We remember eating a dinner in a restaurant and we were invited to look at the caves that had been carved out below. We stepped carefully down rickety wooden stairs and found some old men drinking wine under a bare light bulb. We tried the wine; it was delicious.

Memories like these last forever. Could today’s Orvieto be as pleasant as our memory of Orvieto?

Orvieto is as pleasant as we had remembered it.

Looking up to Orvieto

The funicolare

Our apartment is very comfortable. Sabrina lives across the street (though the street is about 10 feet wide and her door is only 30 feet from our door.) She has three families staying here in various rooms and apartments. We’ve had breakfast in her home twice this week. The first breakfast included scrambled eggs and bacon. Well, the bacon was actually a few strips of smoked pancetta, lightly fried. This was the best bacon we had ever had with scrambled eggs (which we rarely have at home.) A treat for sure.

Orvieto is an ancient city. In medieval times the city had stout defenses with cliffs that ring the city. The cliffs are 100 to 150 feet high and from the ramparts of the city one looks down on the tree tops below. It makes my stomach turn over to consider the drop from the ramparts to the streets below. 

The railroad station is at the bottom, of course. Immediately behind the railroad station is the funicular, a train car that is pulled by a cable up and then let down the slope that has been tunneled out between the valley below and the town above. There are two cars that pass each other in the middle as the cars exchange places every 15 minutes or so.

The town is very social. The streets are empty during the lunch hour (an “hour” that lasts from 1pm until 4pm.) But from 5pm on the streets are full of local people and tourists on parade, talking, shopping, and eating cones of gelato. It’s a pleasant atmosphere.

The Orvieto cathedral

The Orvieto Duomo, the town’s cathedral, is gorgeous. The facade is covered with mosaics that catch the sun and dazzle the eye. From the distance the Duomo dominates the cityscape.

We attended two Easter concerts in the Duomo. The second concert was the symphony orchestra from Florence conducted by Zubin Mehta performing pieces by Vivaldi and Beethoven. The concert closed with the Eroica, Beethoven’s 3rd symphony. The sound was muffled, of course, because the space was so large, but the setting was so impressive that it hardly mattered. And the concert was free.

Trumpet and organ concert

The first concert was very interesting. The first was a concert for organ and trumpet. In advance we expected some of the traditional pieces for this combination of instruments. What we expected was Corelli but that did not happen. Instead, the performers did pieces by Fasch (a German composer of the 1700s), Mahler, and Mussorgsky. The Mahler was the slow movement from his 5th symphony, a huge work, sad, touching, almost depressing. The Mussorgsky piece was his well known Pictures At An Exhibition, a piece written by him for piano, rearranged by Ravel (and many others) for orchestra, and,finally, rearranged for trumpet and organ.

The trumpet had the heavy lift with the Mussorgsky piece. The trumpet soloist played three different trumpets, a D trumpet (with and without a mute) and two C trumpets (again, with and without mutes.) The D trumpet was piercing. One of the C trumpets had a larger bell and a broader sound. There were six different kinds of trumpets that played against the organ and the music survived the transition from piano to orchestra (the version we’re most familiar with) and finally on to trumpet and organ. It was a stirring performance.

Rick Steve’s guide book says that you can “do” Orvieto in a half day. We must be very inefficient because we’ve just scratched the surface in the four full days that we’ve been here. The shopping is good and the restaurants are good, also, but more expensive than we accustomed to. The town itself is fascinating with twisting, narrow streets and wonderful views across the valleys below. We not done yet.

Orvieto is as attractive a town as we remembered.

Our GPS

Our daughter gave us a Garmin GPS device some years ago. We were so impressed with the thing that we bought the GPS map-on-a-chip for Europe and we’ve used the GPS when we’ve driven through Italy. 

It is so easy to get lost driving in Italy. There are only two kinds of roads, superhighways and ordinary two-lane roads. The superhighways are terrific and the speeds are determined by the capability of the car you’re driving and, of course, by your nerve. The ordinary roads, however, are another matter. Lots of twists and turns, rises and falls. Narrow bridges. And though there is a system for naming state and regional highways with numbers, the Italians seem to have overlooked the need to put up signs that show the numbers. Intersections are often a forest of signs indicating twelve towns to the right, nine towns to the left, and six towns straight ahead. It is not a surprise that Italians swear by their navigatore or, as we call them, GPS devices.

We traveled on Saturday from Florence to a spot for lunch at an inn in the hamlet of Nottola. We had a fine meal there. Afterward we drove on for an hour to our destination in Orvieto. We’d been in contact with the owner of the place we were staying in in Orvieto and we had the address. We’d seen the location of the place we were staying on Google maps and we’d entered the exact location in our GPS.

What could go wrong? We drove happily down the road from Nottola to Orvieto. No need to consult a map. We’d let the GPS direct us to the place we were staying.

The owner had noted that the apartment, which we had rented for a week, had free parking included only a few steps away. And the parking was covered.

As we exited the superhighway at the Orvieto exit, we saw the town high up on a great outcrop of rock with sheer cliffs on most sides. Very impressive.

The GPS guided us toward the town and at a Y-intersection told us to continue on. We ended up in front of the railroad station where cars were picking up passengers. It was a very, very dead end route that we had been guided to. (We were at letter A on the map. The map was generated by the GPS device and shows the route in dark gray that we took to our apartment at Ripa Medici in Orvieto.) 

We realized that we had guessed incorrectly when the GPS gave us ambiguous directions but we recovered and took the correct street. The GPS told us to turn sharply to the left and climb up a steep road to the town. Then the GPS told us to turn sharply to the right up a very narrow street with fat trees on either side. The street grew more narrow until we came to sign aimed in the other direction that kept traffic out. To our right was a military property of some kind. And the road was about 10 feet wide with fat trees on either side. (See letter B on the map.)

We backed up very carefully.

Our apartment was on the other side of Orvieto but, since we hadn’t actually looked at a map, we were unaware of that important fact. Orvieto is a small city but it is a city full of narrow, one way streets that twist and turn.

We drove across the city (to letter C on the map.) It seemed that we were making progress. The GPS said that we were getting closer to our destination.

At this point we were entering the medieval quarter of the city. The streets narrowed, some climbed up abruptly, others fell sharply down, twists, turns, and the GPS kept us on a merry-go-round of tiny streets only a little wider than our rented car. (See letter D on the map.) Finally, the GPS suggested that it would be a good idea to drive along a “street” that was along the wall of the city about 10 stories above the ground far below. (See letter E on the map.) At this point the GPS said that we were only a few hundred feet from our destination but we gave up, parked the car (illegally, of course), and walked to our apartment with the help of some local people. 

The next day, Sunday, I took a picture of Annette in the middle of the street that we refused to drive on. This is a wide section of the street.

Sabrina, the owner of the apartment, took pity on us and asked for the keys to the car. First, she drove the car to the apartment and we unloaded our luggage. Then she drove to the city parking garage (at letter F on the map.) From above it looks like an empty, flat space. Actually, it is a three story parking garage with access to the city by way of elevators and escalators. Included in our rental was a smart card that gives us access to the garage. And the garage is, in fact, covered.

Based on this experience it is probably a good idea to have a map to back up what your GPS tells you. In Orvieto our GPS gave us accurate information and poor advice.

The visitors