Orvieto

Yesterday we got up, grabbed some pastries for breakfast, and then caught a train to Orvieto, in Umbria, north of Rome, for a visit to the ancient Etruscan hill town that is now the site of one of Italy's most beautiful cathedrals.

Below, the Duomo, notable for its black and white stripes and colorful façade:

The most interesting facet of the city is its three-thousand year old Etruscan heritage. The civic museum contains climate-controlled tomb paintings, discovered at the tombs just below the city. Here I am, standing in front of an Etruscan inscription at the entrance to one of these tombs: