Courtney researched the small towns of Italy before we left on our trip, pouring through books and taking copious notes to select the best ones to visit during our last week there, when we would have a rental car to travel through Umbria and Tuscany. So at breakfast in Assisi on our second morning there, she told me the itinerary for the day and we pulled out a map to chart our course.
We would be driving on the Super Strada 75 West to Perugia and from there would transfer to E 45 South to Todi and then onto winding State Road 448 West to Orvieto. Mind you, this was only my second day with the car and the first day of driving had proven harrowing.
We checked out of our palace apartment on our last morning in Florence and waited with all of our luggage at a taxi stand down the street. There were already three people in line there, one looked like a fashion model dressed in a sheer shirt/dress? and boots, and the others were a pair of housecoat clad Italian women in their upper years who were talking animatedly into their cell phones. It seemed that they had all been standing there for quite a while and could not get taxis to stop. Without an alternative, we took up waiting along side of them and watched as the drama unfolded. They hailed cabs that already had people riding inside, and stuck their heads into open windows when the drivers slowed down. Back and forth they went to nearby stores to try to get better cell reception as they dialed frantically on their phones until finally, two cabs stopped to take the girl and then the women to their destinations. After 45 minutes or so, a cab stopped for us too, but not before we called our rental car agent and told him we might not be able to make it. He advised us that the city buses were on strike that day and that all of the cabs were full. We would have to hoof it, he said. But to our relief a driver did finally stop, and he said he was asked to come for us by another driver...could it have been those hardworking Italian women who had seen to it that we would be taken care of as well?
At the rental car agency we were shown to our car and given a brief "Cheeri-o!" We pulled out of the parking lot and into the Florentine traffic, not fully understanding much about the direction we were heading in or what the traffic signs meant. But we were on our way and happy to be leaving the overcrowded town of Florence.
We made our way onto the Autostrade A1 Toll Road and soon learned to keep in the right hand lane where the trucks were driving. Every time I got into the left lane to pass, a car would rocket into my rear view mirror and impatiently wait for me to get back over again. We drove through tunnels before I could figure out how to turn my headlights on, but luckily for us they were illuminated from inside. I never really located the speed limit signs, but tried to keep up with traffic. Oh, did I mention that the car was a stick shift? Luckily I had learned to drive one when I was a teen, but it had been about twenty years since I had used a clutch...but that worked itself out pretty quickly. The one problem I had though, was in not being able to locate the parking brake. This inconvenience meant that when I stopped the car, it began to roll. And in Assisi it was very hilly. And in Todi and in Orvieto....So after sending my mother and daughter out of the car for whatever we needed when we stopped, I used my time sitting there with the footbrake on to eventually discover that I could park the car in gear and also push a little button marked "P" that prevented the car from rolling, no matter how hard I pushed on it when I stepped out!
So with those competencies under my belt, we headed out for a day of driving in the green countryside dotted with castle-topped hill towns and pointy evergreen trees lining the horizon. Our first stop was Todi and after a harrowing time of driving through the narrow city gate and up and down a few treacherously skinny streets, we parked our car in a city parking lot and climbed up the hill to the magnificent church, built in the 13th century, at the top. It was Sunday and mass was just beginning, so we happily stayed for the liturgy, as almost all were, in Italian. I could follow along with the prayers and the responses pretty well, and used my Magnificat to read along as the bible passages were proclaimed.
Soon we were off to the parking lot and to our car, and after driving up to two "Do Not Enter" signs (at least I think they were, as there were no words, only symbols on their signs), I drove down a step hill then hugged a building as my car climbed at an impossible incline and twisted out onto the street above. And on to Orvieto we went, stopping at a bridge to eat in a bit of shade along the river the lunches we packed for our journey.
"So, why are we going to Orvieto?" I asked my daughter, somewhat hoping to get out of the second half of this trip.
"Oh, you'll see!" she grinned with a mischievous smile. "There is something for you and something for me there, and you won't be disappointed!!"
After another hour of driving or so, we made it into the town and safely parked our car. Then out into the streets we went, climbing the hill through wider avenues this time until we came to the top. There were lots of restaurants and shops here and the town seemed rather affluent. We walked past jewelry stores and pottery shops and place after place containing religious goods for sale. Then suddenly the vista opened up to a wide piazza containing an ENORMOUS blue and white stripped church which was built in enthusiastic response to the Eucharistic Miracle that had taken place there. Here is what our guidebook has to say about it:
"In 1263 a skeptical priest named Peter of Prague passed by a few miles from Orvieto on a pilgrimage to Rome. He had doubts that the bread used in Communion could really be transformed into the body of Christ. But during Mass, as he held the Host aloft and blessed it, the bread began to bleed, running down his arms and dripping onto a linen cloth (the corporal) on the altar. The bloody cloth was brought to Orvieto where Pope Urban IV happened to be visiting. The amazed Pope declared a new holiday "Corpus Christi" (Body of Christ) and the Orvieto cathedral was build (began in 1290) to display the miraculous relic." (Rick Steve's Italy)
I was suddenly thrilled to be there, and rejoiced with Courtney that her surprise had hit a home run. After touring the church and seeing the miraculous cloth, we toured the Etruscan tunnels build beneath the city and then headed off for home. What a day!
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