Editor’s Note: Anna Heise of the University of Maine has agreed to write a blog during the Black Bears women’s basketball team’s trip to Italy. The senior center from Halle, Germany, will provide readers with a student-athlete’s perspective on the experience as the team enjoys the history and culture of Italy while playing a handful of games.
ORVIETO, Italy — Even the most beautiful place gets a little bit of rain from time to time. Friday it was Italy’s turn. The weather didn’t stop us from discovering another great city, Orvieto. Before we started our two-hour drive to our first destination it was time to check out of our hotel and leave Tuscany behind.
Orvieto might be one of the most underrated cities in Italy. Nobody ever tells you to go there, you mostly hear about cities like Venice, Rome or Florence. Fortunately, our tour guide Leonardo knew about the beauty of the city and put the sightseeing tour on our itinerary.
Every morning on the bus, two of our players inform everybody else about the history, important sights to see and some fun facts. Today it was my turn, along with Liz Wood, to inform everybody about Orvieto.
Orvieto is famous for its spectacular views of Italy’s hill country. Some of the views were simply breathtaking and even the rain couldn’t stop us from lots of picture taking. Who knew umbrellas would look that good on Instagram?
Orvieto is located on top of a plateau of tufa rock, a volcanic rock and can only be reached by a cable car or escalators.
We started our sightseeing tour at the Piazza del Duomo where you can get a good view of the Orvieto Cathedral and other important buildings of the city. Another important thing you should definitely see is the Pozzo di San Patrizio, or how the Americans would say St. Patrick’s well. You had to pay 5 Euros to walk almost 300 steps, but it was worth it.
After visiting Orvieto, we continued our trip to the last destination, Rome. We arrived at the hotel and had an hour of free time before it was time for dinner. The best part of dinner was the Tiramisu we had for dessert.
Saturday we are going to visit the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. After that it is time for our last game of the trip.
About the author: Anna Heise is majoring in journalism at UMaine with a double minor in child development and family relations and creative writing. She enjoys hanging out with her teammates, traveling, reading and watching movies.