Orvieto Jazz Festival

After a crazy New Year's Eve and a night of absolute zero sleep, Jess and I arrived in Orvieto around 12:30 on New Year's Day. We took a mini-bus up to the hilltop town and got off to find a breathtaking view of the Umbrian countryside below. I walked out to a look-out point only to realize that the place I was standing was actually the wall of the ancient city. It wrapped around the entire hill and had several turrets and very high watch-places from which you could see everything. I was quite exhilarated that I was walking around on old city walls and couldn't help but imagine what it would have been like to be a peasant or a knight or a guard on one of those walls hundreds of years ago.

Jess and I ventured up the main street of Orvieto into the center of town. It was very empty and quiet. For a few minutes I was surprised that a small town with such a big festival could even have a moment quietness, but then I realized what time it was: siesta! The time that Jess and I had planned (well, re-planned, since this was already Plan B) to spend walking around the town finding some neat shops and cafes was thoroughly hampered by the fact that all shop owners were at home sleeping, leaving us not many options except window shopping. As we walked, we enjoyed the festive decorations that were hung throughout the town and the sound of jazz music floating through the streets, until we came across a small, modern-looking cafe where we finally decided to sit and rest.

It's not that we had been walking all that much and were tired from strenuous activity, but you must remember that this was mid-afternoon following a completely sleepless night, so the tiredness was hitting us quite a bit by this point. We took our time in the cafe and warmed up with some tea and coffee before bracing ourselves once again for the biting cold outside. But we could not bare it. The tiredness overtook us and we were dying for a place to sit and comfortably rest, to freshen up, and to leave our heavy bags that we'd been carrying around all day. Unfortunately, when Jess and I were planning the trip, we were unable to find any open hotel rooms in the entire city (that's what happens when you try to book a day in advance), so the only place we were able to find with availability was near a lake about 15 or 20 minutes away. Our original plan had been to spend the entire day in Orvieto with our bags and then just take a taxi back to our hotel sometime that evening, but on top of that costing a lot of money, we were seriously dying for a place in the center of town. As we walked in a daze, Jess suggested we go check in the next hotel we found to see if they might, by any chance, have an open room we could stay in for the night. To no suprise, they didn't, but they referred us to a hotel next door that we could ask. We went straight to that hotel, Hotel Piccolomini, and knew from that moment that we walked in the door that we would like it.

I was not expecting much luck at this hotel either, but the manager actually had good news for us. There was one room available with two twin beds located in two separate parts of the room. He told us there was a slight problem with the room because of a low ceiling, but he said he would take us to go see if so we could decide if we wanted it. It ended up being perfect for us, and we didn't mind at all that one of the rooms had a slanted ceiling that couldn't be walked under if you are standing up straight. The manager offered to give us 90 euros for the room instead of 150 because of the low ceiling. I knew that I'd be paying double for a hotel that night, since it was too late to cancel our other reservation, but we calculated the price and determined that 90 euros would have been about what we would have paid for a cab to and from our other hotel by the lake. I was a little sad not be able to see the other hotel we booked because I knew it was a really great place, but the chance to lay down, maybe take a nap, and get rid of my increasingly heavy backpack was all too enticing.

Hotel Palazzo Piccolomini, a pic from the website

However, the sleep did not happen. When we were checking into our new hotel, we inquired about jazz events that were going on that afternoon. The manager told us that there was a gospel concert scheduled at 3 if we wanted to go. Everything else on the schedule for that day were things you had to pay for, so we decided we really wanted to go to this gospel concert. We were already late for it, but after dropping our stuff off in the room and freshening up a bit, we walked towards Orvieto's' famous Duomo where the concert was supposed to take place and stood in line to get in. After much confusion and broken English and Italian, we finally figured out that the concert wasn't going to start until 4:30 or 5. There were plenty of things to see in town, so we knew it would be fine finding something to fill the time. We went and sat on the side of the Duomo and then realized, what better thing to do while you're waiting than have a photo shoot?

We took some fun pictures, saw a bit more of the town that was now getting quite busy, and then went back into the Duomo for the actual concert. When the choir finally arrived in the cathedral and started singing Amazing Grace, I got extremely excited that I was about to hear a genuine Gospel group from somewhere in the South. They were awesome, but they were only singing slow, mellow songs. I kept waiting and waiting for them to bust it out, but it never happened. Instead they would sing a few notes, followed by awkward silence, then some priest or someone would read or quote something. It turned out to be mass, with an occasional line sung here or there by the gospel group. At the beginning of the concert, the Duomo was so full I could barely move. The longer the mass went on without music, the less and less people that were in the cathedral. By the time Jess and I decided to leave, it was about halfway empty, and the concert still had probably another 30 minutes to an hour to go.

It felt quite refreshing to be released from the boredom and disappointment of the "Gospel" mass. It was around 6:00 and we were ready for dinner. That may sound like a completely normal concept to you, but I assure you that here in Italy it is considered crazy. Jess and I walked into several different restaurants to see if we could eat there, and they all told us that they don't even open until 7:30. We remembered a wine bar that we had past earlier while walking around town and decided to go hang out there until dinner started. That didn't work either, because when we got there we discovered it didn't open until 6:30, another thirty minutes. I can't remember what we did in the meantime, but eventually we were able to go in the wine bar and enjoy a drink and some snacks before we dinner

After having an enjoyable glass of wine, the two of us were finally able to sit down to a delicious Italian dinner. I ordered spinach ravioli with truffle sauce and Jess got risotto, and both were amazing! I don't have a very clear memory of dinner though, because a long day of traveling and walking with absolutely no sleep, mixed with hunger and a full glass of wine, made me a little delirious. By 9:30, we were comfortably tucked into our beds and ready to not open our eyes for a long, long time.

I don't remember falling asleep. And I didn't wake up until 8, and then fell back asleep again until 10. We slept for a full twelve hours, and when we finally got up and got out of bed, I was still tired and having to fight not laying in bed all day. It was a glorious sleep. I can't remember the last time, or anytime for that matter, that I actually slept for twelve hours. There was no rush, no hurry, no noise, no pressing agenda... just a relaxing day ahead of us. Our first goal for the day was to attend the hotel's free breakfast buffet. I'm pretty sure that was my favorite part of the whole day.

Croissants, pastries, eggs, bacon, rolls, cereal, ham, cheese, coffee, tea, cake, panatonne, fresh fruit... the list went on and on, and we ate it all. Finally feeling rested and awake, Jess and I had a great time talking over our brunch and trying all the new delicious breakfast items in front of us. During our breakfast time, I noticed that the walls around us were very old looking. I asked the manager where we were exactly and if there was any significance to it. He told me that the Hotel Piccolomini is built in the former palace of the royal Piccolomini family in Orvieto, from the 16th century. We were eating breakfast in one of the lower rooms of the palace, right above the old wine cellar and basement. I don't know about you, but I thought it was pretty darn cool to have stayed in an old palace and get to eat breakfast under the same roof that a family 600 years ago got to live under!

After breakfast, we walked back into the main square in town to try to figure out what events were going on that day. We found ourselves in a piazza where we could hear a concert going on. It was too late for us to go in, plus you had to pay, so we decided to sit on the steps outside of the building and have our own free concert. It was the same Gospel Band that had sang at mass yesterday, but this time it was a real concert, and I had a blast listening to some African Americans busting it out and singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." It cheered me up and put me in a good mood for the day :)

Listening to the Gospel Concert outside

When our little concert ended, it was right around noon, the time that all the shops and cafes close for siesta, so once again our options were getting slim. We didn't know what else to do, so we sat down in a cafe and ate some more :) Not too much later we decided to check the main theater to buy tickets for a jazz show that would be going on there later in the afternoon. When we tried to go to the ticket office, we unfortunately came across a locked door and an unhappy worker on her break. She motioned, somewhat angrily, to us that they didn't open until 2. Apparently they didn't open then either, because when we came back at 2, we were told to wait until 2:30. I don't remember when, but we eventually made it into the ticket office to finally buy our tickets to this big show. Unfortunately when we spoke with the workers, we discovered that the concert was more than twice as much as what we had expected, and we couldn't bring ourselves to pay that much. Our only alternative was a wine tasting and smaller concert of three guys doing jazz music, but we only had just a few minutes to get there.

We ran, bought our tickets, and ended up early enough to stand in line and wait for good seats. The music was phenomenal. The jazz band was composed of a piano player, a saxophone player, and a xylophone player. Every single one of them blew my mind. I could not believe how well they could play, and I knew that half of what they were playing was probably music they were making up on the spot. The best musician to watch was the xylophone player. He really got into. I love seeing his excitement and the joy on his face as he played his beloved instrument. When he got really excited, he jumped in the air as he was playing. Now that's passion.

Sadly, we had to leave before the encore because we had to catch our train home. We didn't see a whole lot of jazz during the day, but the one concert we went to was absolutely worth it. Jess and I were able to get on the same train home and were shocked to find that there was no seats available at all on the train. We stood for 45 minutes until I had to depart and switch trains. I got on a new train that was coming from Rome and going through Foligno and sat for awhile studying my Italian book before I looked over and realized who was next to me. It was the girls from the train on the way to Rome... the ones that had mistakenly told me I was on the right train. Turns out, one of them spoke English quite well so I got to talking with her and she was actually really nice! I was a little angry at them at first because they put quite a damper on my New Year's, but after talking I could see that it was just a mistake, and they had suffered from it as well, arriving to their dinner in Rome well after everyone else had already eaten.

I finally made it home and, as usual, breathed a sigh of relief when I walked in the door. It's always a great feeling to finally come home :)