Thursday is market day in Orvieto and we came out to a much busier town. The sun was shining and more shops were opened so it looked like it was going to be a great day to wander the town.

I was up and ready early so I went out to take some pictures of the church in the sunshine. The last time I was here the church was covered in scaffolding and you could not see any of the facade which was very sad since it is amazing. It has gold mosaics and carved panels that seem like they were finished yesterday not in the 13th and 14th century. There are four panels beginning with Genesis and the birth of man and ending with the Last Judgment. They are really intricate but to me overshadowed by the good mosaics which are mostly about Mary. They are spectacular. Assuming they were cleaned and restored in 2004 when I was here before they look brand new. They are as dynamic as the mosaics in St Mark’s in Venice that are inside. Although I guess the elements inside can cause damage as well but it just seems that this shouldn’t be this sparkly 600 years later.

I didn’t have to time to go in before heading to the markets so I plan to do that this afternoon.

The market was typical of an Italian village market. Selling everything from vegetables, cheese and meats to clothes and household goods. We wandered a bit but didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without. I think Christina was expecting more like the markets in Florence so this was a completely different experience. I did expect a bit more touristy offers but likely those vendors only come out in higher tourist seasons. We did however see more people in town then we saw altogether the last few days so it was a good sign.

We shopped in a few stores including a great pottery shop. I went a bit overboard and bought several things. So much so even the shipping was outrageous. But their things were beautiful and I am already sad I didn’t buy more. Everything was hand painted in Orvieto, some even by the women helping us out. So I felt good about my purchases. I wanted a pasta set but not a big thing here. They had some beautiful big bowls but not the individual size. So instead I went with a big platter that has several divided pieces in a lovely turquoise design. I should have taken the other stuff off before the picture but you can still see it. Can’t wait to have people over to use it.

We went up to drop off our purchases and look for a place to have pizza for lunch. It was sunny and pleasant when we went up 20 minutes later the wind picked up and it was freezing. We tried several restaurants that came up in our search but they were either closed or didn’t seem to have pizza. So after a bit of walking in the freezing wind we went back to the bar underneath our apartment. Actually the pizza was really good so we should have just started there.

After lunch we went to get Gelato. It has sadly been a limited gelato trip. Usually I would get gelato everyday but that has not happened this trip. We looked for it in Treviso but all the gelato shops were closed so we didn’t get to try it there. We had it our first day is Florence but it was really disappointing so I didn’t even mention it. We could have tried again there but I didn’t even see anywhere where it really looked good. Of course it was cold and a lot so that might have been most of the issue. Regardless I have had way much less gelato than I would normally have on an Italian trip and was going to have gelato in Orvieto at Pasquale’s even in the freezing wind. It was delicious just the gelato I needed and well worth the wait.

Afterwards I decided to try to go into the church but is was closed for a funeral. They said it would likely be an hour so I tried to stay out until it opened back up. I walked all around town. Even met a local who worked as a handy man at the cathedral and a local fireman. He told me all the things I shouldn’t miss in town and informed me that he had once worked at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth. He was a nice enough guy and I enjoyed our conversation but it was really cold and I wanted to head back to see if the church had opened but the funeral was still going on. I walked around a bit more but it was too cold and I felt like a vulture waiting for the funeral to finish so called it quits and went back to the apartment. I will have to try again tomorrow before we leave tomorrow morning.

Christian was up so we had another bottle of wine then headed out for dinner. We went to the Blue Bar first and were sad that we hadn’t been hitting the bar every night. The bartender was entertaining and even picked up his guitar and serenaded us a bit. We had a few drinks, Aperol Spritz, then headed to dinner. It wasn’t our best choice but it was okay. I had a tortellini with meat sauce but it could have used a bit more sauce. It did feel very authentic we seemed to be the only English speakers in the room.

We walked home in the cold and worked on our packing some. The bags were heavy and out of balance and I needed to do better if I was going to get them down the stairs in the morning. Turned out it was an early night.