Orvieto the object

Official web site of the city of Orvieto, with more going on than tourism

Orvieto, someone said at a conference in Rome a week later, is moving toward the condition of Venice: it is becoming an object, not a town. While its economic base may be tourism, I didn't experience Orvieto as a stage set. There was a convention center built into the former Papal palace, and there the International Association for Slow Food was meeting for earnest discussion and a "food crawl" around to local restaurants. There were teenagers doing the passegiata at night on the main street a few hundred meters from the Duomo. There were many stores on the main street that catered to the daily needs of resident families: hardware, appliances, pharmacies. A block away were souvenir shops and pricey antiquities, but on a side street we bought a picnic lunch in a neighborhood grocery with low prices compared to the "local specialities" sold around the corner.

• [Nearby: At the Duomo in Orvieto -- Tour groups at the door -- Are the hill towns real? ]