Location — ARTFAITHHISTORY (3)

our location

Located between Florence and Rome in the central Italian region of Umbria, the historic cliff-top town of Orvieto lies within easy reach of Assisi, Siena, Perugia, and Arezzo, and is home to one of Europe's major cathedrals.

ORVIETO

Set atop an oval mesa of eroded volcanic tufa and commanding spectacular vistas of the surrounding Umbrian countryside, the town of Orvieto has been continuously occupied for at least two-and-a-half millennia. The composite vestiges of Etruscan, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance habitation create a setting rich and strange with the layers of history—an architectural and archeological palimpsest. While small in size and population, Orvieto is home to one of Europe's major cathedrals, an opera-house theater, and to a rich variety of cafes and restaurants, shops and museums.

Photographer Emily Burlew caught this dramatic view as the dark clouds gathered over the still sunny Orvieto.

The Duomo as seen from a third floor window of the Museo Faina

Inside the Duomo, packed for a concert

Bishop Scanavino (or Padre Giovanni, as he liked to be called) preaching with scenes from the life of Mary in the background, frescoed in the 1370s by Ugolino di Prete Ilario

well … such scenes happen in Italy

No better place to familiarize yourself with the lay-out of Orvieto than from the Torre del Moro at the intersection of the Corso with the Via del Duomo, but prepare yourself for when the bells begin tolling.

Piazza del Duomo on a winter evening

From Advent through Epiphany, one walks through town under a canopy of light

The Procession on Corpus Christi begins when the great doors are opened.

The candle-lit Via Crucis winds its way through the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday.

UMBRIA: “the green heart of italy”

The central Italian region of Umbria presents a varied and subtle landscape of vineyards and olive groves, hills and hill-towns such as Orvieto, Perugia, Assisi and Todi. Rome, Florence, Siena, Arezzo are readily accessible by train. The homeland of ancient Etruscan civilization, Umbria, homeland of St. Benedict, is also the source of a tradition of Christian spirituality that integrates a transcendent mysticism with deep love of creation in figures such as Francis and Clare of Assisi, Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and the poet Jacopone da Todi. Marked with the traces and treasures of medieval and Renaissance culture, Umbria is the lively stage for constant interplay between the ancient and contemporary.

Everyone up on the cliff, or “rupe” of Orvieto admires the zig-zag of cypress trees along the lane up to a villa on the opposite hill-side. The landscape is quintessential Umbrian.

Poppy-filled pasture looking over Lake Bolsena.

Vineyards, olive groves, small wooded areas, crop and pasture fields: these are the four elements of the regional landscape. Most glances over the countryside will find all four features.

The eleventh-century Benedictine monastery viewed from Orvieto. Monasteries punctuate the landscape of all of Umbria.

The rolling meadows and dazzling yet subtle colors of fields of wildflowers around Casteluccio, above Norcia, birthplace of Saint Benedict.

In the autumn, the landscape turns golden with the ripened vineyards, the foliage of the oak trees, the fields of wheat.

Okay, the Val d’Orcia, under the gaze of Mont’ Amiata, is in southern Tuscany, but Umbria is nearby. An untouched photograph by Madeleine Linnell looking south from the town of Pienza.

CONVENTO DEI SERVI

Participants in the Studio’s activities lodge in the historic 13th century monastery of the Servite order, recently renovated from top to bottom with a dormitory of double rooms with private baths, a spacious art studio and library-classroom, a comfortable sitting room, dining hall and kitchen, a cozy outdoor patio for breakfasting, chef Maria’s potted herb garden, and loaded with artworks of students.

The church of the monastery of the Servite order, with the entrance into the monastery (or convent) itself to the left of the photo. Founded as a daughter house of the Servite order in Florence, the monastery was constructed from 1250 to 1270. Learn lots more in Agnes Howard’s lovely essay about “Il Convento dei Servi” in the Essays from the Archive section of the website.

Students’ artwork in the art studio for visitors to enjoy at the end of semester Festa.

The hallway to the dining room is lined by prints from the 1993 Florence Portfolio of prints — the occasion of Bruce Herman and John Skillen’s first visit to Orvieto … the rest is history.

The participants in the Lilly Fellows Program Summer Seminar for College Teachers gathered in the sala for discussion, under the eye of the Madonna della Misericordia, a painting jointly created by Bruce Herman’s painting study class and Matthew Milliner’s art history class.

The library end of the sala.

Every day, pranzo and cena, prepared by master chef Maria.

The bedrooms are simple and monastic, but can be made beautiful with simple touches.

The end-of-semester grand Festa — an event for the whole neighborhood and dozens of friends of the Gordon semester program, with an unending buffet from Maria’s cucina.