This tour was completely fascinating to me, and I am really glad we did it. I learned a ton.
So here's the deal. Orvieto is built on top of a hill. This hill turns out to be a volcanic plug that popped out of the volcano and landed a long way away. This happened millions of years ago. There have been people living here for thousands of years - ever since the Etruscans in 500 BC or so.
This volcanic plug is made of some really hard rock, called tuffo, as well as compacted ash. These two things turn out to be perfect construction materials. They dig tunnels into the ground to pull out the rock and ash. They mix the ash with water and make cement the tuffo rocks together and make their stone houses.
The tour guide said that nearly every house on the hill has a tunnel or cave under it. Many of them are interconnected.
Because the city has been so populated over the centuries, they needed more and more space for dwellings. Therefore, they used the tunnels to have extra space to work. One of the things they did down there was to make olive oil. There were massive stone wheels for grinding the olive into paste, as well as huge presses to squeeze the oil out.
To this day olive oil is still one of the largest industries in the region.
Wine grapes are another, and all of the volcanic ash in the ground provides them with a unique terroir and flavor.
Another type of work they did down in the tunnels was to raise pigeons for food. Thousands of pigeon holes. Apparently, you don't have to do much to raise pigeons. They are pretty much self-sustaining and that comes in really handy during a siege. This is one of the ways in which the survived sieges over the years.
I don't think I have ever eaten pigeon, but they certainly did here. I guess you can still order it in many restaurants here. I think the French like pigeon, too. Sounds gross, but is it any different than eating chicken or duck?
Up next... How they got water during a siege.
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