About an hour’s train ride north of Rome, the hill town of Orvieto satisfies a yearning for many a traveller looking for a taste of medieval Italy. While most of medieval Rome was razed during Mussolini’s era, Orvieto is, at its heart, a medieval city, awash with a quintessentially Italian atmosphere – old, charming, and picturesque, with winding cobblestone streets, broad piazzas, and one of the most important Gothic cathedrals in Italy. Elizabeth Heath, a US-born travel writer living near Orvieto, suggests nine must-see sights in Orvieto that would make any day trip both interesting and enjoyable.
- Elizabeth Heath
- Last Checked and/or Updated 3 March 2025
- Italy Travel Tips & Ideas
If its heart is in the Middle Ages, the bones of Orvieto are Etruscan. The city on the hill was likely the location of Velzna, one of the members of the Dodecapolis, the league of Etruscan cities who united for trade and religious purposes. Orvieto is also a strong contender as the site of the Fanum Voltumnae, the sacred area where the league gathered once a year to worship and elect a leader. According to Livy, it was at the Fanum Voltumnae that the league voted against aiding member city Veii in its war with Rome. Veii fell to the Romans in 396 BC, marking the beginning of the end of the Etruscan civilization. One by one, the other cities of the Dodecapolis were supplanted by Rome, until Velzna itself fell in 264 BC.
For centuries after it was razed by the Romans, the urbs vetus – the ‘old city’ on antique maps – lay abandoned. It was likely resettled by the 6th century AD, and increasingly rose in importance, thanks to its close ties to the papacy. Orvieto’s strategic location, high on a volcanic plateau, near a major river junction, and midway between Florence and Rome made it an important crossroad in the Papal States, where it remained until the Unification of Italy.
Today, Orvieto’s long story arc is evident at nearly every turn, with historic and archaeological sites, points of interest, and attractions that capitalise on the layers of history that lay under the city’s surface.
Il Duomo di Orvieto
La Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, more commonly known simply as Il Duomo, strikes a mighty profile on the Orvieto skyline. And it certainly offers ‘wow factor’ to visitors, who arrive via a narrow street onto a sprawling piazza, where they’re confronted by the massive edifice. The Gothic-style cathedral was first conceived in the Romanesque fashion, but a series of stops and starts resulted in its current evolution, most of which dates to the 14th and 15th centuries.
The Duomo’s soaring façade is composed of statuary, a central rose window, and glittering gold and coloured mosaics that recount stories from the Old and New testaments. The interior of the Duomo is austere when compared to the spectacular exterior. But it contains one of the most important fresco cycles in Italy – in the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio, Luca Signorelli’s series, the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment are considered a precursor to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel treatment of the same subject matter.
Tickets to the Duomo, available on the official website or at the door, also include admission to the Duomo religious art collection, the adjacent Papal Palace, and the modern Museo Emilio Greco.
Guided Tours of the Cathedral of Orvieto
Both of these walking tours include entry tickets to the cathedral.
Orvieto Underground
Orvieto is interesting enough on the surface, but what lies beneath it is possibly even more fascinating. The city sits on a volcanic tuff into which a vast network of caves has been formed – more than 1,200 in all, some of which even predate the Etruscans. This honeycomb of corridors and storage cellars were used in times of siege, as a means of hiding out, reserving supplies, and escaping the city undetected. In many of the caves, deep, narrow wells, dug by the Etruscans, still lead to underground water sources.
The Orvieto Underground is one of a handful of caves in the city that are open to the public, and it offers the most comprehensive look at how the network of passages developed. During a one-hour guided tour, visitors learn about the geologic origins of Orvieto’s imposing bluff, and how the earliest residents of ‘the rock’ quarried the soft volcanic stone for building material, leaving behind the caves, which were continually expanded well into the modern era.
Visit the official Orvieto Underground website for information on tours and times.
Torre del Moro
At the intersection of Corso Cavour and Via del Duomo the 47-metre-tall Torre del Moro (Tower of the Moor), along with the Duomo, marks the other high point on the Orvieto skyline. The tower, built at the end of the 1200s, was both a status symbol and stronghold for one of Orvieto’s powerful families. It would have been one of many towers in town belonging to rival clans but today, it is the only one still standing at its original height.
The tower passed into civic hands in the 1800s, when the bell and town clock were added. Today, it marks the hours and serves as a point of reference for turned-around tourists. Visitors can climb 270 steps to the top of the tower for a splendid view of Orvieto’s terracotta rooftops, as well as the Umbrian countryside. There’s also an elevator that takes visitors partway up.
Pozzo di San Patrizio
When Pope Clement VII fled to Orvieto following the 1527 Sack of Rome, he undertook a series of civic projects to improve life for people in the city. Among them was the Pozzo di San Patrizio, or the Well of St. Patrick, built near the edge of Orvieto’s eastern cliff with the intention to guarantee a water supply to the city should a siege occur. The 62-metre-deep well, designed by influential Renaissance architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, wasn’t completed until 1537, long after Clement had returned to Rome and three years after his death.
Pozzo di San Patrizio is the only one of its kind to employ a double helix design, in which twin spiral staircases – one for ascending and one for descending – were constructed so that donkeys could transport water from water from the bottom without ever passing other donkeys heading down. The well is open to visitors but remember, what goes down must come back up! Nearby are the hulking remains of the 14th-century Albornoz Fortress and, to the left of the well, the ruins of the Etruscan Temple of Belvedere.
Crocifisso del Tufo Etruscan Necropolis
At the northern base of la rocca – ‘the rock’ on which Orvieto sits, the Etruscan Necropolis of Crosifisso del Tufo spreads out over several hectares. In keeping with Etruscan custom, cemeteries were located outside the city boundaries, and, in this case, well below the upper settlement. Today, walking through this atmospheric, never-crowded burial ground, which was active from the 8th century BCE, feels like wandering into a different millennium.
Similar to the better-known Etruscan burial site of Cerveteri near Rome, the Crosifisso del Tufo necropolis is laid out in a carefully measured grid of ‘streets’ – a true city of the dead. Row after row of chamber tombs are constructed of tufo, rectangular-cut blocks of volcanic stone, and marked with a lintel above the entrance that bears the family name. Some still have their cippi, or carved headstones on the roof. Some of the tombs can be entered via a few downward steps, but grave goods are long gone – moved to museums in Orvieto (see below) or other parts of the region.
Etruscan Museum Claudio Faino & the National Archaeological Museum
We grouped these two museums together for a couple of reasons: They’re right across the piazza from one another – the Claudio Faina faces the Duomo and the National Archaeological Museum of Orvieto is in part of the papal palace behind the Duomo. Together, they offer a comprehensive look at the richness of Etruscan Velzna, as both are filled with grave goods and remnants from temples and other archaeological sites near Orvieto.
At the Museo Claudio Faina, explore case after case of intricately painted Etruscan vases, delicate jewellery and personal items, banqueting accoutrement, and thousands of Roman coins. At the National Archaeological Museum find monumental statuary and terracotta reliefs, bronze items, and two painted chamber tombs transferred from a site between Orvieto and Lake Bolsena. If you only have time for one, go for the National Archaeological Museum.
Chiesa di San Giovenale
The oldest church in Orvieto is also one of the smallest and most beloved, by Orvietani and visitors alike. San Giovenale was built in 1004, on top of a 6th century church that was most likely over the site of an Etruscan temple – it sits in the oldest and most archaeologically rich section of town. The church was modified and slightly expanded over the centuries, but its lower section remains from the early 11th century and frescoes, though recently restored, date to the 12th and 13th centuries.
The church is located on a small piazza that sits right at the edge of the rupe, or cliff of Orvieto.
The interior of the petite church (usually accessed through the side door) contains partially preserved frescos from the 12th-13th centuries – freshly restored in 2014. The marble altar is dated 1170. The church, a little outside of the main tourist area but still ‘up on the rock’, is never crowded and lends itself to hushed voices and quiet contemplation. As with many sites in Orvieto, it doesn’t take much imagination to be drawn into the Middle Ages here.
Pozzo della Cava
While the Orvieto Underground (see above) offers a more academic look at how the city’s system of underground caves was formed and used, Pozzo della Cava, we’d daresay, is a more dramatic, entertaining experience. The labyrinthine system of caves has at its centrepiece a 16th century well, built during Pope Clement’s era as an expansion of an existing Etruscan well, still visible. The well, the eponymous pozzo della cava, was uncovered by accident in the 1980s, when a new owner started renovating the building over which it sits. A touristic site – and a new career for the owner and his family – was born from that random discovery.
During decades of excavations, Pozzo della Cava has revealed Etruscan tombs, tunnels, and water sluices, later caves dug for storage, at least one ceramics kiln, and thousands and thousands of artefacts, many of which are on display here. There’s an easy self-guided tour, with explanations in English. Located on steep Via della Cava in the oldest section of Orvieto, this attraction is definitely worth trekking down to – and back up from.
If you do not buy the Orvieto City Card, you can buy a ticket for Pozzo della Cava online, in advance.
Anello della Rupe walk
If you’re up for a moderately challenging walk, then the Anello della Rupe (literally the ‘ring of the cliff’) is a terrific way to appreciate how, for millennia, the mighty rocca of Orvieto was a secure place of refuge for its inhabitants. The 4.4-kilometre pedestrian loop can be reached by descending from several different points in town. If you’re closer to the funicular and train station end of town, follow the cobblestone path on the righthand side of the Albornoz Fortress and pass under the Porta Rocca to pick up the trail. Or from the very end of Via della Cava, pass through the Porta Maggiore – an Etruscan city gate, and bear right, staying close to the city wall, to pick up the path.
Wherever you access the path, the hike offers a pleasant, surprisingly verdant break from the town above, and offers glimpses of the Etruscan necropolis and the ambitious masonry projects that have shorn up the cliffs over the centuries, plus a lot of up-close-and-personal time with the imposing rock that has protected Orvieto for nearly 3,000 years. Bring a bottle of water and wear sturdy walking shoes.
How to Get from Rome to Orvieto
Orvieto is a town in southwestern Umbria that is 100 km north of Rome. The city is an easy journey from Rome by car, bus or train. A number of tour companies offer day trips to Orvieto from Rome for which transport is included.Â
Getting to Orvieto by Car
A car journey from Rome to Orvieto is under 1.5 hours. Most of the journey is on the A1 motorway (that runs between Naples and Milan, bypassing Rome), with the last six or so kilometres on smaller roads to the parking lot for the hilltop city. It is not possible to drive in the historic city without a permit.
Getting to Orvieto by Bus
Rome to Orvieto by bus (1 hour 25 minutes) is offered by Flixbus. Tickets can be as cheap as €4.99. There are two departures, each way, every day: Rome to Orvieto at 10.20 am and 21.20 pm; Orvieto to Rome at 7.50 am and 17.10 pm. Book tickets via Trainline.Â
Getting to Orvieto by Train
There is a regular train service between Rome and Orvieto. Trains depart Rome from the main station, Roma Termini, and also Roma Tiburtina. Depending on the time of service, the journey ranges between 1 hour 17 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. Ticket price also varies, starting at around €9. From the train station in the lower part of Orvieto you the take a funicular up to the historic hilltop. The funicular entrance is directly opposite the entrance to the train station. Book tickets for the train to Orvieto via Trainline.
Guided Day Trips to Orvieto From Rome
Perhaps the easiest way to get from Rome to Orvieto is to take a guided day trip from Rome. There are a number of option, including combinations with other historic towns in Umbria. These vary greatly in price, because they offer different things. Fine a combination that suits you and compare what each provider offers.
Assisi and Orvieto Day Trip from Rome
Umbria Full-Day Tour of Orvieto and Todi
More guided tour options from GetYourGuide and Viator.
Custom, Private Tours
For those who are looking for a more personal experience, consider consulting a local guide for Orvieto on GoWithGuide. Whether it is a tour of the spectacular Cathedral or a full day guided tour of the city, guides are able to create an itinerary just for you. If you have not heard or used GoWithGuide, read why we recommend their guides.
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Guest Author: Elizabeth Heath
This guest article, with its suggestions for some of the more interesting archaeological and historical must-see sights of Orvieto in the Italian region of Umbria, was written for Archaeology Travel by Elizabeth Heath. Elizabeth is a US-born writer with a doctorate degree in anthropology and archaeology, and currently living with her family in central Italy – not far from Orvieto. So she knows the city well. Elizabeth has had many articles about luxury and family travel, culture and cuisine in Italy published in various online and print outlets. In 2019 Pen & Sword Books published her guidebook The Architecture Lover’s Guide to Rome.Â
