Day Trip to Civita

On Monday we took a day trip to look at Orvieto from the countryside surrounding the city. The views were great looking back at Orvieto even though it was somewhat of a hazy day. After stopping a couple times to take a look back out the town we visited the site for our studio project. We are designing and remodeling a house to become a b&b or apartments. It is an interesting site with some caves for wine, a horse pasture, and a small area for fruit trees. There is a lot of potential for the project so it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

After our site visit we went to the town of Civita where Don and Carol live. The town is very small and is perched upon a cliff similar to Orvieto but smaller. There are currently only about 10 people living in the town. The views around Civita were spectacular. I cannot picture a more perfect setting for a tiny little town. The landscape surrounding the town is all eroding away so it creates a very dramatic scene. The only access to the town is a pedestrian bridge which we trekked across. We visited the Watts' house and toured their remodeled "hay shed." The shed which is now somewhat of a living room is across the small street from their house. It is one of the nicest little spaces in terms of views out as I can imaging. There is an amazing view from the toilette out to the countryside and all the windows in the place do the views justice. They have a terraced patio/garden which left me speechless. It was very simple but elegant and again the views were astonishing. My favorite thing there was the one olive tree that was perfectly, naturally, placed in front of a window on the edge of the cliff.

We went to a bruschetteria and had a great lunch and then we were served some grappa which was essentially gasoline because I took the leftovers from all the cups and threw it into the fire and it immediately exploded. After lunch we had about an hour to explore the town on our own and did we ever. A bunch of us headed to the edge of the cliff and down a trail that lead into the valley and away from the city. We found a grove of chestnuts which entertained us for awhile and Cole and I decided we wanted to keep going. We were the only two who wanted to brave the muddy trail which I was ok with because I know what kind of things lie beyond what seem to be uncomfortable conditions. It is almost always worth the extra trouble to go beyond where people normally stop. Even though we were running short on time we descended the muddy hillside until we got to a pass between two valleys that lead to another stone outcrop which was protruding from the surrounding landscape. We crossed the muddy pass which fell off to the side maybe 100 feet downward and got to the base of the cliff. We turned around because we had to be back to the front gate of the town in 15 minutes. I regret not having a few more minutes to try and get to the top of the cliff, but its probably a good thing we didn't have more time because odds are I would have ended up at the bottom of the valley in shambles.

On our way back, Cole and I had to climb the muddy hill which proved not to be as easy as going down. On the way up I slipped and did the splits and in an attempt to keep my camera from the mud I managed to rip a foot long section of my jeans in the crotch. Not really the end result I was expecting from the hike but it was worth it.

Later that night we made a great dinner and Adriana roasted some of the fresh chestnuts she collected. The Civita trip was my favorite day up to this point. I think the reason for that is that we had some time to explore, not just in the city but in the countryside. On that note, I'm getting excited for the Ireland trip!