Week 5 – Reportage

 

The road to Orvieto is called Sagrantino Road after the wonderful red wine produced only here in Umbria.  Vineyards and olive groves compete for sunshine.  Sage points hide bulbs of green that grow on trees pruned like apple trees to stay low to the ground.  Farms stack rectangles of hay in pyramids to dry.  Buildings with vulnerable roofs held down by strategically placed rocks house animals and equipment. The villas, attached to the hillside, overlook the rows of grapes growing up the beautiful rolling hills.  As we travel higher, the view changes to water ways, a lake formed by a dam with winding roads covered in arched tunnels.  The water, the color of my coffee is high and muddy, kept in check by large cement retaining walls.  Higher still, fog mists the green mountain tops erasing details and occasional houses close to the road surprise me awake.  I’m grateful to not miss the stunning vistas yet my head bobs longing for sleep only to be bashed against the window each time the road, filled with potholes, turns back on itself.  In the melting fog, the city of Orvieto hangs on the side of the mountaintop, a cliff growing out and up with a massive system of tunnels underneath in which olive oil was processed and water wells dug deep into the volcanic remains.  Continually reinforced, the cliffs of Orvieto protect its citizens from rivals on their way to or from Rome.  In WWII the wounded had quick access to hospitals through the underground passages.  The cathedral built at the height of the Gothic period is another story entirely.