Hotels in Todi Italy
There are a few modest hotels in Todi; the more luxurious choices are a few miles outside of town. A rocky road leads to the San Valentino Hotel, south of townSEO Content Writing specialist. Much money went into restoring this 13th century monastery, nestled on a wooded hillside in the town of Fiore (and open year round). Persian carpets and gleaming wood, plus gar dens, swimming pool, and tennis courts, make for a pampered stay. Nearby, in Terminillo, there are respectable ski slopes.
Another good choice, less than a mile west of town on the road to Orvieto, is the converted convent Hotel Brarnante, with cozy rooms, modern facilities, medieval charm, and moderate prices. The hotel sits opposite the Tempio della Consolazione, a graceful Renaissance church with such pure lines that it is thought to have been designed by Bramante. Nearby is the quaint Trattoria Cibocchi, at ponte Martino 67, a favorite no frills spot for locals. Reached by a winding, bumpy dirt road running perpendicular to the main road that skirts the church, the restaurant abounds in local color. Large windows frame rolling hills and vineyards, and baskets of thick, homemade bread grace the tables. The menu changes daily and the food is very satisfying. Try the rabbit stewed in wine and olives, or the roasted fowl.
There’s a good bed and breakfast not too far, a little north of Todi in Montecastello di Vibio. Fattoria di Vibio is made up of side by side stone houses that its owners, two Roman brothers, have imaginatively restored. There are ten double rooms altogether, done up with wrought iron beds, terracotta floors, and local handicrafts. You can swim, hike, play tennis, or ride horseback here or just laze pools ide and Sip Vin Santo on the panoramic terrace. There’s a two day minimum, and weekly rentals are available from mid June to mid-September.
The drive from Todi to Orvieto via either route 79 bus (very scenic) or route 448 (scenic), passes through some transcendent terrain, the mood of which no doubt inspired the chef/owner of Vissani, hailed as one of the five best restaurants in Italy. Located in the town of Baschi, near Lago di Corbara, it is housed (actually it’s a small room) within the larger, bustling Il Padrino (Vissani’s father)where you can enjoy excellent Umbrian food at moderate prices. The younger Vissani’s creations, among them shrimp ravioli in orange oil, are cosmic, as are his prices; it’s best to order the prix fixe dinner (six courses). The service is impeccable if surrealbut then, this is Italy. Depending on your mood, you will eat very well at either place. Reservations imperative.
Talk about being placed on a pedestal! A giant upthrust of reddish tufa rock, a jagged remnant of volcanic days, lifts Orvieto some 900 feet above the wide valley of the river Paglia. Approached by route 71 from Lago di Bolsena to the southwest, the city appears to be a mirage, especially during the sizzling Umbrian summer when the air seems to wave like moire fabric.
Although its cathedral and its wine take top billing, Orvieto’s history stretches back to the Etruscans, whose sharp eye for defensive positions made this an important stronghold of their confederation in the sixth century B.C. Then known as Volsinii, this thriving pottery town developed a prosperous economy, trading widely with Greece, and established a powerful agricultural monopoly. The Ro mans sacked it in the third century B.C. and forced the inhabitants to build a new city, Volsinii Novi (modern Bolsena). Later the urbsuetus, or old city from which Orvieto’s name deriveswas rebuilt. Numerous artifacts taken from Etruscan tombs are on view at the Museo Archeologico Faina in the Palazzo Faina across from the cathedral.
The Roman period was followed by the familiar bands of medieval marauders – Goths, Byzantines, and Lombards the last of whom set up a duchy here in the sixth century A.D. During the Guelph Ghibelline battles, the Monal deschi and Fillipeschi families, whom Dante compared to the Montagues and Capulets, scandalized the city and their neighbors. The plague further stressed the city and made it easy prey for the takeover in 1354, when the papal legate, Cardinal Albornoz, annexed it to the Papal States.
Orvieto is quite flat up top, where it is laced with narrow streets sporting stately 13thcentury palaces and shops that sell traditional majolica ware. Overwhelming the piazzale Cahen at the eastern edge of the city is the Rocca Fortress, built in 1364 by Cardinal Albornoz as a way of keeping the papal embers burning while the pope lived in Avignon, Nearby are the remains of an Etruscan temple and the Well of San Patrizio, designed by Antonio da Sangallo in 1530 and commissioned by Pope Clement VII, who, having recently fled Rome after Charles V sacked the city, wished to prepare the town should it be placed under siege. Two spiral stair cases, which never intersect, descend into the well.
The Duomo, which stands in the spacious piazza Duomo directly across from the tourist office, is the town’s center piece. With its striped sides and bejeweled facade, the cathe dral is a masterpiece of exuberant details and dominates the entire city. Gothic architecture, introduced into Italy by the Cistercians, never really captivated the Italians (their version is always with a small g). Uncomfortable with Gothic proportions, which they considered inimical to the widely spaced Roman plan they loved, the Italians did what they were best at: They decorated the cathedral in Gothic style but never wholly embraced the Gothic form.
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