The city of Orvieto is built on a hill of volcanic residue and clay. Caves and tunnels were dug below the city to provide storage, food production, and above all, escape and protection from marauders. All the homes have their own caves dug below.
In the picture to the left, the holes in the wall were for pigeon breeding. Families could go down into their cave and harvest fresh meat.
Also pictured is an grinding stone for making olive oil dated 1647. The in the picture, on its side to the left, sits upright on the base and a donkey walks in circles, attached to a pole of sorts, around the base to press the olives. In the other picture is a well dug by the Etruscans, about 6 stories deep, or 268 steps as counted by one of the students. There are stairs that go down and up like the strands of DNA, so that there are different levels- a double helix- so that carts could go down and up at the same time. What an amazing feat of architecture at that time!
The young gentleman photgrapher is Robert, an intern from AIOC, who is working with Chef Lorenzo now and came along on the excursion. He offered to take a group photo and got more than he bargained for! If you count the cameras in his pockets there are 12...
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