UNDERGROUND!

We spent our Wednesday studio touring the underground city of Orvieto. The city, as it's known today, sits atop over 1200 underground man-made rooms--used as far back as the Etruscan era, revamped in the Middle Ages, and used even today. Our apartment building on Via Clementini sits over 2 large underground constructions, one of which is accessible from our main entry and now used to hold roof tiles, brooms, etc.

The entry way to the tour of only a few of these spaces:



Windows from the caves opened onto the southern cliff face of Orvieto...



And the final turn of the tour took us up a tiny, steep staircase where you had to bend over, squeeze through a few twists, and pray your slightly claustrophobic self wouldn't hyperventilate in front of the whole group (perhaps just me...). Eventually you 'popped up' from what looked like a trap door into the WWII era bomb shelter carved under our study center (the former city hospital).