Recently we stayed in Tuscany and Umbria. They are beautiful green parts of Italy filled with rolling hills, olive groves, vineyards and pretty little towns dotted throughout the mountains.
We stayed in two old country houses and in between relaxing, playing scrabble and eating yummy food, we explored some of the nicest villages in the area. Most of the villages are quite similar. They are usually perched up high because this gave them an advantage to see anyone who might be coming to attack. Many of the villages have old castles that were used to defend against enemies. We explored castle in Montecarlo that had small windows for soldiers to shoot their arrows from. They were aptly named “murder holes”. The villages all have old churches with bell towers, often right next to large squares that are lined with restaurants. We would wander around, look in a few shops, find somewhere nice for lunch and then get gelato. This was our routine for every visit!
Occasionally though, we’d find something a bit more random to explore. In Orvieto we parked in the carpark, getting ready to do our usual visit, when we spotted a ticket booth. Dad needed to break a note to get change for parking so we went inside. He asked what the tickets were for and the lady said “the famous well of course!”. Hmmmmm, what makes a well worth paying €5 to visit? We decided to check it out.
It didn’t look like much from the outside. Just a round brick building sticking about 2m out of the ground. A small sign said that it was built 500 years ago at the direction of the Pope who wanted to create a local water source for the village. When you walk inside, a spiral staircase descends into the darkness. Arched windows let natural light into the space. Walking over to the windows, I expected to look down and see a couple of flights of stairs and a pool of water at the bottom. Instead I got dizzying vertigo from staring 55 metres down. The first window at the top had a safety railing but all the others didn’t. In typical Dad style, he freaked out whenever Leo and I looked over the edge.
There were 248 steps to the bottom and 249 steps back up. The well had two spiral staircases so that when donkeys walked down to collect water there wouldn’t be any traffic jams when they made their way back up again. When you reach the bottom there’s a small bridge over the water, which is filled with coins that people have thrown in for good luck. Looking up, you see the staircases spiralling upwards and a perfect circle letting sunlight shine down. It was a weird, kind of unpleasant feeling being so far down in a crumbly old structure and my mind was imagining the whole thing collapsing. It gave me a good energy burst to rush up the stairs!
In Lucca, we climbed 230 steps but rather than going down we went up! We climbed the Guinigi Tower which is 45 metres tall. It was built around 700 years ago by the Guinigi family who were wealthy silk merchants. They built the tower to show off their wealth and wanted everyone to believe “the taller the tower the wealthier you are”. The coolest thing about this tower is that it has a garden at the top. Seven oak trees were planted by the family to represent their seven sons. At the top you have beautiful views out over Lucca and the countryside. It’s really peaceful even with the crowds of people.
I’m excited for the next historical surprises we find as we continue through Italy.
We are enjoying reading about and seeing the places you are experiencing. I think that well would have freaked me out! I love seeing the villages with their narrow streets and village squares.