Grotte della Rupe (Etruscan Orvieto Underground)

Piazza Duomo 24

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The Orvieto comune has finally laid its hands on some caves of its own and leads groups down into them to try and explain the network of tunnels honeycombing the tufa subsoil. The visit can be overly didactic and explanatory, but you do get to see an underground medieval olive press (the constant temperature was great for oil making) probably recycled from an Etruscan structure, perhaps a temple. You can also peer down a few claustrophobically narrow Etruscan-era wells, wander around a subterranean quarry for pozzolano (a volcanic stone powdered to make cement mix) in use as late as the 19th century, and tour a series of Etruscan pigeon coops (no, seriously) carved out of the cliff-side tufa.

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