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About Orvieto
Orvieto is a city in southwestern Umbria, in Italy, on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city is among the most dramatic in Europe, rising above the vertical faces of tuff cliffs and completed by defensive walls made of the same stone.
Orvieto was certainly a major centre of Etruscan Civilisation. In fact, the Archaeological Museum houses some of the Etruscan handcrafts that have been recovered in the immediate neighborhood. An interesting survival that might show the complexity of ethnic relations in ancient Italy is the inscription on a tomb in the Orvieto Cannicella necropolis: mi aviles katacinas, "I am of Avile Katacina", with an Etruscan-Latin first name (Aulus) and a family name that is believed to be of Celtic origin.
Orvieto was annexed by Rome in the third century BC. After the collapse of the Roman Empire Orvieto gained new importance: the Episcopal see was transferred from Bolsena, and the city was held by Goths and by Lombards before its self governing commune was established in the 10th century, in which consuls governed under the bishop. Orvieto's relationship to the papacy has actually been a close one, in fact the territory of Orvieto was under papal control long before it was officially added to the Papal States and it remained a papal possession until 1860.
The long history of Orvieto has left us many monuments to visit: its Gothic Cathedral (the Duomo), the Miracle and Corporal of Bolsena, the Papal Residence, the Etruscan Ruins, the Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo, the Albornoz fortress and also the underground city: in fact the city of Orvieto is characterized by the secret of its labyrinth of caves and tunnels that lie beneath the surface. Dug deep into the tuff, these hidden and secret tunnels are only now open to visits with guided tours.
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