I'm back! I'm very sorry about the long blog absence. The internet situation in Rome was horrible. Such a shame, too, because our hotel was otherwise really nice. The wifi never worked at all, and even when we used a cable (which we had to share), it only worked intermittently. Then it went off completely for two days. But now we are in Florence and the wifi is working well so far! Fingers crossed it will prove to be reliable.
So, I have some catching up to do! We took literally thousands of photos in Rome, so it will take awhile to choose some for the blog, but I hope to start posting something tomorrow. For now, I'll pick up where I left off last week: on Monday, we went from Pisa to Orvieto, changing trains in Florence.
Orvieto is a small hill-town in the beautiful region of Umbria. We stayed just one short night there, arriving around sunset and leaving the next morning, but it was a good stopover. The cathedral was a bit of a letdown because the weather was poor, photos weren't allowed inside (and they charged admission and the staff was cranky) but the exterior was lovely after dark and the town itself was much nicer than I had expected.
After I finished the night photos, we explored the town a bit and eventually found a place that looked good for dinner. I have very fond culinary memories of Umbria, as David and I ate really, really well in Spoleto and Assisi. I remembered the local specialties in this region were black truffles and wild boar, and was determined to have at least one of those for dinner. Happily, I did, and those two ingredients also made frequent appearances in shops throughout the town.
It was pouring rain when we left the restaurant and the rain continued most of the night, so I was very grateful I had the opportunity to take the cathedral photos earlier in the evening! But I did put my hood up and go back up to the cathedral plaza later to call David. It was one of my most atmospheric phone calls ever. It was so quiet and beautiful up there in the rain, with the cathedral towering above me and the lights reflecting on the wet cobblestones.
More on Rome soon - and Florence, where we will be for the next two nights. It is really good to be here - it is so much more beautiful and peaceful than Rome! And we had a magnificent dinner tonight near our hotel. I took pictures. :)