Shopping, Parking & Getting Around

Orvieto’s via Duomo and Corso Cavour are lined with elegant restaurants, boutiques and craft shops selling jewellery or Orvietan ceramics, including reproduction Etruscan ware or carved wooden sculptures. Ceramics-making is still a flourishing business in Orvieto, a tradition that dates back to Etruscan times. To sense its importance, it’s enough to do the Underground Orvieto tour. The tour reveals both ancient ceramics found in wells and more modern pottery dating back to the 18th century. At that time, certain underground chambers housed furnaces used to bake the clay. As for the art of glassmaking in the area, this dates back to medieval times when master-glassmakers made the windows for the Cathedral in Orvieto. Finish a window-shopping stroll with an ice cream in Gelateria Pasqualetti on either Piazza Duomo 14 or Corso Cavour 56.

This Roman-born goldsmith is established in Orvieto and creates jewellery made with precious or semi-precious stones. His hand-crafted creations are personalised and often one-off creations.

Address: Via Garibaldi 3/5, 05018 Orvieto
Web: www.abgioielli.net

Expect craftmanship at this superior gift shop, which focuses on timeless terracotta pottery and ceramics, ranging from the quirky to pieces inspired by Etruscan times.

Address: Piazza de’ Ranieri 13, 05018 Orvieto

Loredana creates charming trinkets and colourful, arty ceramics, ranging from plates, glasses and vases, mirrors and lamps.

Address: Via dei Magoni 7, 05018 Orvieto

This wine estate just outside Orvieto welcomes visitors who make an appointment. Bottles are still stored in the same cellar where the Etruscans themselves used to keep their wines. Dug from tufa stone, the cellar provides the perfect conditions for ageing wine. Wines range from Sauvignon to Sangiovese, a well as Orvieto Doc Superiore.

Address: Località Le Velette, 23, 05018 Orvieto
Web: www.tenutalevelette.com

Street parking: Limited “pay and display” visitor street parking is indicated by blue lines, with grey ticket machines sited nearby. 

Car parks: the best car park is generally Campo della Fiera – ex Foro Boario, in terms of both size and convenience. Set to the west of town, this is below the so-called `medieval district’ (“quartiere medievale’) and reached by the SS 71 road.  From here, there is direct access to the city centre via lift, escalator or stairs, all of which end up close to Piazza della Repubblica.  Bear in mind that while the Ripa Medici lift is open late, the escalators only run until 9pm.

Via Roma Parking, to the north, is the alternative multi-storey parking option, with further parking available on Piazza Marconi, to the south-east, directly behind Piazza Duomo (do park in designated “blue” spaces only) or in Piazza Cahen, to the north, which has a mix of free and paid parking.

Download the Orvieto city map to check the precise location of car parks:
www.orvietoviva.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mappa-orvieto-orvietoviva.pdf

Web: www.orvietoviva.com/en/orvieto-parking/

Conveniently, the railway station, main taxi rank, bus station and the funicular all lie on Piazzale Matteotti in (dull) Lower Orvieto (known as Orvieto Scalo). The funicular connects Orvieto Scalo and Upper Orvieto, the lofty historic city, and stops at the top of the rock in Piazza Cahen, from where electric buses run to the cathedral if you’d rather not walk.

Arrival & departure tips:

By road: Orvieto is about an hour’s drive from Perugia’s San Francesco airport and about 90 minutes from Rome’s Fiumicino airport or from Rome itself, and only slightly longer from Florence. If arriving via the A1 motorway, take the Orvieto exit and follow signs to the city centre, which is around 4.5 kms away. Umbria’s main tourist towns, including Perugia, Assisi and Terni, are easily accessible via the E 45 road.

By rail: Orvieto lies on the Rome-Florence-Milan rail route and is readily accessible but, once in Umbria, a hire car is still advisable for proper touring.