Orvieto

When you reach the top of the last rise of the road coming from the Via Cassia, this town appears suddenly, high on its volcanic tufo platform immersed in the green. Only in this way can you realize immediately its structure, so compact and still so harmonious, the warm and even colour of ancient buildings and roofs, where stone and red brick prevail, and the huge cathedral, almost out of proportion and placed by a gigantic hand among the narrow medieval streets and squares as the only true ornament of the city. 
Only after seeing the whole will you be ready for the emotion of finding yourself, almost of a sudden, in front of the high facade of the church. The cathedral is full of beautiful things: sufficient to mention Luca Signorelli's frescoes of the Antichrist and the Last Judgement, in the San Brizio chapel, which inspired Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel, and are so powerful as to leave you stunned.