Sadly, we would have to leave our castle lodging and begin our journey to our next two night stay. With luck the new lodging would have air conditioning!

Our main stop for the day was the city of Orvieto. Perched on top of a tuff mesa and riddled with man made caves, Orvieto is a popular day trip for travelers visiting Rome. Definitely on the busier side today but I know it gets a lot worse here during actual tourism season.

We would normally have parked at the base of the mesa and taken the funicular up; however, this was currently down for maintenance and they had a shuttle bus running people up. This took quite a bit longer as not only did it have to follow the road but they were also in the process of repaving sections with led to a bit of a traffic jam. With all of this, we probably didn’t make the top until 11AM.

Once again, it was a very warm day and we played shadow hopping where we could just to stay as cool as possible.Still, the city has some great views!

We had a pretty nice view from the restaurant as well.

We headed off for a look at the Orvieto Cathedral. This is the most ornate front of a cathedral that I have ever seen! I also believe they blew the budget on the front as everything else looks pretty plain by comparison.

We continued to explore the streets.

We eventually hit up one of the caves that are accessible by the public. It was slightly cooler in there.

After the caves we got ourselves a reward.

We finally headed north to our lodging for the next couple of nights in San Gimignano.

San Gimignano is known for its medieval towers and is a popular destination.

Dinner was at a restaurant that I’ve been to several times and holds a special place in my stomach.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is cooler!