On a cold and rainy Saturday morning a group of my friends and I headed to the medieval town of Orvieto for a day trip in the Italian countryside. Orvieto sits atop a hill about an hour and 15 minutes away from Rome and was absolutely beautiful.

We arrived just before noon and started wandering around town. The town is surrounded by a wall, which makes for a perfect view of the valley below. In search of lunch, we walked toward the city center to find a restaurant. We ended up eating a really delicious meal at a restaurant we stumbled across on a side street. I had some amazing pesto gnocchi, but there were all kinds of dishes on the menu–including wild boar stew and pasta with rabbit meat, both of which my friends tried.

After lunch our next stop was going to be La Duoma, the cathedral Orvieto is famous for, but we ended up grabbing gelato on the way. This ended up being one of our best calls of the day because the gelato was the best we’ve had in Italy so far. We even considering going back for round 2 before we left.

As we walked up the street to La Duoma my jaw-dropped. One of our Student Life Assistants told us before we left that this is one of the only churches you’ll visit that is more beautiful on the outside than the inside–and he was right. The steeples tower above the town and feature ornate sculptures with colorful and golden details. The sides of the building are gray bricks in a striped pattern, which was really unique. We only caught a glimpse of the inside because it was closing. Not as magnificent as the outside, but still a pretty.

Even though we arrived too late for a tour of the inside of La Duoma and the museum, we made it just in time for the “Underground Orvieto Tour”. For only 5 euro we were given a guided tour of 2 of the caves that are underneath Orvieto. The man made caves that are under this city date back to the Etruscan Age, but were mostly used during the Medieval Age. Our tour guide told us that there are so many caves under the city that every 3rd step you take is above a cave. The vast majority of these caves were built privately by the families who owned the houses above them. There would be a staircase from within the home down to the cave. Each cave was designed with the specific needs of the family in mind. Many of them were used as work spaces because the town was too crowded otherwise. The caves we went into were outfitted as an olive oil mill and a pigeon house. I found them really interesting and was thankful to get out of the cold wind for awhile.

That evening we walked back through the center of town and did a little shopping. We grabbed some calzones before heading back to the train station for our quick ride back to Rome. Orvieto is a beautiful city that I would definitely visit again–preferably on a day with nicer weather.