Orvieto on-the-way to Rome

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We woke up super-early to catch a train, which we had to transfer in a lil' place called Terontola-Cortona... where we met FOG and COLD! I was freezing on the platform as we waited... but I made it and we got on our train to head to Orvieto. Once we went through all the mess to do leave our bags (climbing a steep! hill!) we took the "funicular" -- a type of shuttle that used the weight of the other car to pull us up the mountain. Once we got up that contraption, and grabbed a bus, we found ourselves some breakfast, and made our way through the city... making it to the all famous church! Before we left Ferrara, my host mother explained to me that the church is built to be facing the sunset, so that when the sun finally sets it looks as if the church is almost in flames, and completely golden. Once you get close to the church, you see that it is covered with little pieces of golden tiles. Also according to legend, in a church close by, there was a doubting priest who was celebrating the Holy Sacrament... and in the middle of the consecration the host turned into living flesh... he quickly tried to hide what had happened in a cloth... and this cloth is now at the church in Orvieto.
After we finished up exploring the church, we found a beautiful lookout point, afterwhich it was getting close to time to catch the train to Rome, so we headed out... but not without some shopping and some food to snack on!
We planned everything perfect and got on our train without any problems... making it into Rome early afternoon. Once we finally got out to our hotel, we decided to make our way back into town to catch some sites. On this trip we saw the Vittoriano, Colosseum, the forum, and the temple of Vesta, before making our way to the Trastevere area to eat some grub! We had some traditionally roman dishes, such as pasta alla carbonara and saltimbocca -- a thin veal cutlet cooked with prosciutto and sage. After some walking around the area, and some gelato, we decided to call it a night as we were already tired from all the train rides and the previous week... to start the next day walking Rome!

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