We were foiled!

We woke up early this morning so we could catch the 7:50 bus to Civita di Bagnoregio. We bought the bus tickets on the way to the bus stop (they're cheaper if you buy from a tobacco shop instead of the bus driver) then found the bus stop and waited. And waited. We waited until about 15 minutes past when the bus should have been there and we decided that something was up. Tommy decided to turn data on his phone and we googled the bus schedule and guess what we found out?? There was a 24 hour bus strike today! Blerg! So we went to find coffee and a pastry and decide what to do.

We ended up having a fun day anyway. We started at the National Archaeological Museum of Orvieto which is a small museum that has a lot of Etruscan terra-cotta objects and ceramics that were found in the necropolis at the base of Orvieto, some of them from 500 BC! The Etruscans occupied this area before being conquered by the Romans.

After we were done at that museum (it's small) we headed over to the Underground Orvieto Tour office to take a tour of underground Orvieto. There is a vast system of caves under the city that were built by the Etruscans. The cave tour was really cool, we saw the remains of an old olive press, a 130 foot deep Etruscan well shaft, a cement quarry and a pigeon coop! The Etruscans dug out the caves and used the material to build their houses, then used the caves a shops and work spaces.

Olive press for making olive oil

Pigeon coops

After lunch we visited the Church of Sant'Agostino which holds the statues that used to be in the duomo. We just happened to run into the guy that owns the apartment that we are renting here, and he offered to show us the cave under his house! He lives right by Sant'Agostino. It's amazing that these ancient caves exist right under people's houses and businesses, such a cool piece of history to be living on.

Then we walked along the ramparts for a little bit, the views were amazing. As we were finishing our walk, it started thundering and raining again, so we made haste to our apartment because we hadn't taken our raincoats with us when we left in the morning. We then headed to the Etruscan Museum which had more artifacts found in the area.

Rain and thunder

We decided we deserved a break after all that so we headed back to the apartment to wait until dinner. Most restaurants don't open for dinner until 7 or 7:30. People eat dinner late here, which is hard to get used to because we are usually tired and hungry by 6. Oh well, when in Rome :) We ended up having a fun day even though it didn't go as planned! Tomorrow we are heading to Sorrento!

I had carbonara with fava beans in the sauce and Tommy had steak with gorgonzola and chocolate, he really liked it! 

Creme brule for dessert