Palombella

Two Sunday's ago was the Palombella festival, celebrating Ascension day. The festival takes place in Orvieto's Piazza del Duomo, where hundreds of people gather to see a dove fly from a near by church, to the steps of the Duomo. The dove representing the holy spirit,  is given to the couple who got married first that year.

The dove is inside a box, suspended on a wire, which slides him into a baldacchino on the Duomo steps, where there is a fireworks display. This was interesting to watch, and I am sure PETA would not be pleased. I have been assured that no dove has ever died during the festival, they are just scared. This years dove escaped and flew onto a nearby roof, but luckily for the couple, the town had a backup :)

Crowd in Piazza del Duomo

Baldacchino

Trumpeters

Bishop signaling the dove

Dove flying on a wire

Fireworks

Escaped dove on a roof

Montefiascone

Yes, it's true, I am not done sharing photos from the day we went to Viterbo.

On our we back towards Orvieto, we stopped in a hill town above the Bolsena lake called Montefiascone. It is an adorable town with a castle (Rocca dei Papi) on top of a hill. The castle is mostly in ruins, but it has a beautiful garden to walk around, and great views of the lake.

Bolsena Lake

Rocca dei Papi

Castello di San Quirico

A quick stop we made, before dinner at Zia Graziella's was at a castle close to Orvieto called Castello di San Quirico. Unfortunately, you can't go in, because a family lives there. The castle has the most amazing view of Orvieto, and is in its own town, all by itself called San Quirico. I imagine it is pretty nice to have your own castle in Italy :)

Town sign

The only road to the castle

Cantine Aperte

Cantine Aperte (Open Winery's) happens a few times a year, were every winery in Italy is open for free wine tastings and snacks. We went to Cantine Aperte the day after going to Viterbo.

That  morning we went to Bolsena lake for some sun, which is about 30 minutes from here. Its a huge lake, which millions of years ago it was the base of a volcano. The town of Orvieto sits on a rock, that was originally a piece of that volcano.

After a few hours in the sun, we went to the Tenuta Le Velette winery, about 10 minutes from Orvieto. It's an amazing winery, with a spectacular view of Orvieto. We got to try about 10 different wines, which were all very good.  The property was originally used by the Etruscans, then the Romans, and more recently 7 generations of the same family, all producing wine. We got to take a tour of the caves underneath the main villa. The original cave was dug by the Etruscans, and the expanded by the Romans. They had a huge old collection of wines in the caves, that had all been produced there. Since this family has owned the winery, they have never lived on the property. The villa and other buildings are just used during the harvest season for workers.

Bolsena Lake

View of Orvieto from Tenuta Le Veletta

Vineyards & olive grove

Backyard of the villa

Backyard of the villa

Back of the villa

Cute begging dog

The winemaker giving a tour of the caves

The caves

Some of there wine collection

Etruscan entrance to the cave

Side of the church

Old well

Vineyards

Outside of the church

Inside of the church

Front of the villa