Orvieto & Todi

Yesterday we left Rome and drove north to Umbria, a beautiful region called the "green heart of Italy." We stopped in the town of Orvieto, a medieval village built high on a hill. This was the site of a eucharistic miracle in 1289, and the pope had a beautiful cathedral built there to commemorate the event.

While in Orvieto we visited a culinary institute and had a cooking demonstration by Chef Carlo.

He showed us how to make fresh pasta (one kilo flour, 11 eggs, two tablespoons oil, and four pinches salt), and we learned about the different sizes from tagliatore to lasagne. The pasta was so thin and delicate it seemed like a crepe. As we watched the demonstration, we ate antipasto and drank the local white wine, which is similar to sauvignon blanc -- and let's just say the wine flowed freely. I can't believe we forgot to take photos of the food, because dinner was an exquisite feast beginning with the pasta the chef made during the demonstration. We then had bruschetta with truffle mousse -- mama mia! -- lasagne with a light pesto cream sauce followed by a main course of guinea hen. Dessert was some kind of fluffy cream with caramel drizzle -- all accompanied, of course, by all the wine we could drink.

After trundling off to the bus and managing to navigate the cobblestones, hills, and the funicular, we headed to Todi, another medieval hill town. This morning (Wednesday), we went on a tour of the village and saw the main church, the underground cisterns, and the museum. Todi was an affluent place to live back in the olden days where the inhabitants were actually Roman citizens, and it still seems like a well kept, prosperous town.

We are spending a quiet day here in Todi to rest and relax after the hectic pace of Rome. The view from the town is spectacular. We had a leisurely lunch at a restaurant with a panoramic view and a liter of local red wine. (Who knew that a liter is so much bigger than an American wine bottle?) Tomorrow we will head to Assisi.