Orvieto
October 20, 2019
After touring the Duomo, we visited several museums in that immediate area. I may confuse the names, and if you get to Orvieto, the situation may have changed by then anyway. The main museum is named for a building which no longer houses it. The collection is spread over several places with separate entrances, sometimes upstairs and downstairs in the same buildings. So, anyhow, here is a bunch more (mostly) Etruscan stuff, starting with the downstairs and behind the Duomo collection:
Somehow I got from there to some kind of passageway under the Duomo, I think, that had a few exhibits but the sign said it was closed. That leads outside to a large staircase that takes you over the building to the right, mostly, maybe the Palazzo Papali. Anyhow, the collection there had mostly things that had been in or on the Duomo. This is the original of the central sculpture in the façade, where a copy now resides, so this is preserved out of the weather.
St. Michael is the one killing the dragon in the sculpture, not St. George.
Nearby is the Museo Emilio Greco (1913–1995), a Sicilian artist. Maybe he had a Greek ancestor. This was the work of his I found the most interesting.
I went back by the hotel for a break, probably mostly surfing the web and reading messages using the hotel wifi. Note that the outside of the building doesn't look that modern, though the interior is. Just beyond the hotel is the BNL bank. You can see the ATM in the picture. It has a relationship with Bank of America, so I could withdraw funds from my checking account, as I did from that ATM, and no fees are charged by either bank other than the currency conversion fee. The machine spits out euros, and BofA reduces my balance in dollars.
I walked from the hotel to the Piazza del Popolo. The fortress-like building toward the left is the Palazzo del Popolo. Excavations under the building have found remains of a 5th century BC Etruscan temple. The church near the right is San Rocco.
I walked down narrow streets until I came to a park that overlooked the cliffs. There I took a lot of pictures as twilight progressed. Then I took more pictures as I came back.
Then it was back to the hotel and meeting back up with Torrey. I heard a little about his adventures and told him that the walk he had recommended was lovely, and that I hoped some of my pictures would convey that.
It was just a few days until we were to start the cruise, so we decided to head back to Rome to take care of some last-minute business and to see some of what we had missed, mainly the Forum. So Monday was spent checking out of the hotel and getting back to the funicular that would take us to the train station. We barely missed a train to Rome, so Torrey took in some more sights on that level as we waited, as I recall.