A Weekend in Perugia and Orvieto

By: Talia Lunken

This past weekend I went on the overnight trip with CIEE to Perugia and Orvieto! We started Friday bright and early and headed to Perugina – Chocolate House. We learned all about the history of Baci chocolates and even got to taste a bunch of different chocolates. We ended our visit to the chocolate house by taking a walk through the factory and seeing all the production of the chocolate. Next, we headed to the hotel to have some lunch. I spent the rest of the afternoon with some friends exploring to town of Perugia. We saw some beautiful views, wandered around Piazza IV Novembre, and saw the Fontana Maggiore, and the Perugia Cathedral. We had a lovely dinner in town and then headed back to our hotel for the night. Saturday morning we headed to Orvieto. To get to the town of Orvieto we took a funicular up, as the small town is perched on top of a rock cliff. We did a tour of Orvieto Underground and explored the caves underneath. There are over 1,200 caves and they have uncovered 440 of them so far! We also learned about the homes of the pigeons underground in one of the caves and then they would eat them. They still eat pigeons today in Orvieto! I was not brave enough to try one. After the tour of Orvieto underground we headed to lunch as a group and then spent the afternoon exploring the town of Orvieto. We saw the Duomo di Orvieto and went to tons of cute shops with tiles and ceramics. We also enjoyed stunning views of the vineyards and area below from Belvedere della Fortezza. I would definitely recommend visiting the towns of Perugia and Orvieto! I loved all the chocolate and getting to explore such cute small towns.

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