Friday 28 June 2013 Tyrrhenian Sea

Hello to everyone.

What an outstandingly beautiful day we had today.  Anor early start, in the Princess Theatre to meet our intimate group for our tour, it was intimate today, only three busloads.  We met at 7.25, the ship had been cleared and we were off the ship and on our bus by 8.00 am being introduced to our escort for the day, Jackie an English girl who has lived in Italy for 20 odd years, married to an Itialian obviously. We journeyed to a beautiful town about 1 hr 45 mins away, called Orvieto, in the region of Umbria.  This town has been there since around 700BC and was settled by the Etruscans, it is debateable where they came from, but most probably Asia Minor which is modern day Turkey.

When we arrived we met our guide for the day, Isabella a lovely girl who as always was very passionate about the information she was passing on to us, it is huge to take in and one cannot remember it all of course.  The town is all intact, so stunningly beautiful indeed, I so easily could live here for however long and try and see and soak in as much as I possibly could.  We did a walk of the town learning about the battles, how the Church wanted to control it but they finally became liberated around 1853. 

Isabella took us up a small street and rounded a corner and we were faced with The Chatedral of Orvieto (not the incorrect spelling)  gracious me how magnificent.  This Basilica/Cathedral was begun on the site of the church of S. Maria de Espiscopatu in 1290.  The reason it was built was to house an altar cloth or corporal which was stained with drops of blood that issued from the host during the Mass of Bolsena (1263).  This is how the feast of Corpus Christi came about, this is 50 days after Easter. This Cathedral took around 3 centuries to complete for lots of reasons, financial, deaths of architects, painters, sculptors etc, and many other reasons as well.  It really has been ongoing for many centuries, with a modernisation begun in 1622.  I have to say what an absolute privilege to see something such as this.  The only way to do it justice is to see it. 

After our tour of the Cathedral we had an hour of free time, which Sam says it may be called free time but a lot gets spent in that time.  We then met for our lunch in a lovely restaurant and a lovely meal, great company and then back to our bus at 3.00pm for our journey back to the ship.  We arrived back at 5.00pm had a bite of dinner and then went to see the Music Manager (a pianist) do a recital.  I am now sitting on our bed looking out my balcony at a couple of beautiful ships all lit sailing past us, very lovely indeed. 

Sam is going to have a read, perhaps he can remember something I have missed, anor early day tomorrow, dock in Livorno and we are going back to Lucca, which I did love the last time.  Everyone is probably bored to tears by now so I will sign off, hope all is well,  Love  Sabine and Sam 

PS  I did say to Sam few months ago, bet you Kevin 07 becomes Kevin 13 and he would not take a bet, now he is very pleased as I only bet in shoes and I am in Italy could have cost him a bit.