Umbria - Italy - page 204

Dueling Underground Tours: Which Is Better?
For more of an archaeological perspective, join the city-organized Orvieto
Underground (begins at tourist office; % 0763-344891; www.orvieto
underground.it; tours daily at 11am, 12:15, 4, and 5:15pm). Coordinated
by the Speleological Society, this tour has a feature-rich bent to it:
Background is given on an Etruscan well, an olive press, an underground
stable, workshops, and the pigeon farms. Admission is included with the
Carta Unica; otherwise it is € 5.50.
If you're looking for the personal touch, try a tour with the same name
but which is actually quite different from the one above: The Orvieto
Underground (begins at Bar Hescanas, Piazza Duomo, 31; % 335-1806205;
www.orvietounderground.com; †5; daily hourly from 10:30am) starts at a
stairway underneath a nearby restaurant. It has more of an “exploration
feel.” Caves are a little cramped; one passageway is quite claustrophobic
(you can opt out of cistern-viewing). The bonus is that these are private
caves under a restaurant, so you get to sample some of the owner's wines,
with tasty snacks.
You can follow your descent into the caves with a climb up toward
heaven when you visit the Torre Del Moro (Via Duomo and Via Cavour;
% 0763-306414; € 2.80, € 2 students and seniors; May-Aug 10am-8pm;
Mar-Apr and Sept-Oct 10am-7pm; Jan-Feb and Nov-Dec 10am-1:30pm
and 2:30-5pm). Climb 162 steps on a wide, well-lit stairway to stand on
top of this 45m-tall (150-ft.) 13th-century tower. You'll feel like you're on
top of the mast of sailing ship Orvieto, gliding through a sea of farms,
watching waves of wine fields undulating on the horizon. It has particu-
larly nice sunset views during the extended summer hours. Also check out
the rear of the clock face (added in 1876) on the way to the two bells on
the peak. Admission included with the Carta Unica.
it. What is most memorable about Signorelli's work is his ability to vividly trans-
fer the feeling of contorted bodies, like those carved on the pillars outside, to the
two-dimensional world of painting. Even Michelangelo came here to study how
it was done, applying the lesson to the Sistine Chapel. And if the overly stretched
bodies and surreal landscape in the Resurrection of the Dead (the segment on the
right upon entering) seem familiar, check some Salvador Dalí paintings to see
what he lifted.
Note Signorelli's self-portrait, the man dressed in black, at the left edge of the
wall to the left of the entry. He looks annoyed perhaps because his mistress
dumped him while he was painting the fresco. She is now forever immortalized
(1) as the blonde prostitute in the blue skirt, standing nearly in front of him, tak-
ing money for her services; (2) riding naked on the back of a devil, about to be
plunged into hell (top center of the right front fresco); and (3) in the pits of hell,
being groped by a blue devil whose face looks suspiciously like Signorelli's.