Orvieto- quiet rest

After leaving hectic Venice we headed south on the train to Naples. Four hours later we got off at the walled city of Orvieto. Mike's leg still hurts so we took a cab up to our hotel. For 90 Euros per night we ended up in what seems like a palace. A Bathroom, a good bed and peace and quiet. We have been here for two nights and if you can believe it, Mike had trouble sleeping last night because he could here a television in the distance. Compared to the racket we have slept through in previous places, this was a real treat!

Orvieto is a quiet little town where even the tourists don't seem to ruin the place. The streets are narrow and uncrowded. The churches are beuatiful, if not as spectacular as some of the previous cities we have visited. The food sure beat Venice though! I loved Venice but Mike didn't. The crods and high prices were a big turn off to him. For me, the life on boats and bridges was quaint and romantic. I saw a funeral by boat, saw garbage being picked up in a hand truck (since there are no cars or trucks in the city) and saw boats and water everywhere. It was like our life on the houseboat. Yes, the food was outrageously expensive, but it was my type food (as opposed to Mike's). Where I would start a meal with mussels marinara or mussels in garlic and end with spaghetti in clam sauce, picking happily through the clam shells, he would eat his spaghetti marinara without much pleasure. In Orvieto, the hoof takes over for the shell, and Mike had tried several different steaks, most of the time very happy with the results.

Our hotel was expecting a big tour group today, so after two pleasant nights we moved to a cheaper and much less nice place this morning. Described by our guidebook as a place that your wild aunt with hoop earrings would have decorated I have to say that no aunt of mine would have been caught dead decorating this place. The tourqoise bathroom tile and the granite floor tile in the bedroom give you a sense for the clash of styles. The bed is a giant hammock. Oh well, it provides another home base for two more days of exploring this pleasant little town.

Internet access is more challening here. It is such a surprise to find access difficult. After traveling numerous times through Europe for work without difficulty, I expected that internet access was everwhere. But, here there are signs advertising access, but when you go inside they tell you it doesn't work. We are sitting in the newspaper covered basement of an eating cafe working on two of the four computers here. We tried working on the other two computers without success, so it is quite possible we have the only two working computers in the place. We just had salads for lunch, and we are off for a walk after computer time. Mike is still walking slow and carefully, but he is recovering nicely.

So long, Deanne