We left Rome via train yesterday and arrived in the Umbrian hill town of Orvieto – where we picked up our rental car and spent a few hours wandering the streets of the old city, situated on top of a butte with amazing views, beautiful little streets and a maze of underground Etruscan tunnels. We then drove to Bagnoregio, parked the car and made our way across a narrow bridge to the medieval town of Civita, known in the area as “The Dead City”, since in addition to being the victim of slow erosion, it has a full-time population of around a dozen (and falling). We spent the night here, enjoyed the quiet, the view and the stars, and this morning made our way northwards to Siena – with a few stops along the way (including Bolsena, where we saw a cooking show being taped along the shores of a lake, and Radicofani, where we walked around a 1,000-year-old hill-top castle). We’re in Siena for the next 4 days – more on that later this week!
Postcards
a travel blog from josh and meg
bella italia!
(….new plaid shirt? )
Nice shot of the Italian cypresses – in Toscana. Were there bats in the tunnel? Etruscan ghosts for sure…very scaaary! Such incredible sights and experiences!
xoxoxo
your mom/Sandy
What a gorgeous nighttime picture! There are many reasons the Teapot asterism is significant to us. Our family interest in astronomy goes pretty far back – we are related to James Lick (founder of the Lick Observatory) and distantly related to Grote Reber (father of radio astronomy). And too, one of Meg’s first words was “moon!”
For my part, I had long wanted to see the Teapot but couldn’t because you need a really low southern horizon to see it, which we don’t have in our part of Pennsylvania (too hilly). One summer night when Meg was young we were at Sand Beach in Acadia National Park for a ranger talk on a beautifully clear night … and lo & behold Meg pointed out the Teapot! There it was, low on the horizon, to the south, looking just like your picture!
And then there’s our love of tea (the drink) …