45km (27 miles) W of Todi; 87km (54 miles) W of Spoleto; 86km (52 miles) SW of Perugia; 152km (91 miles) S of Florence; 121km (73 miles) N of Rome.

Orvieto has a peculiar geography – it rests on a plateau about a thousand feet above the surrounding plain. The whole area around the city was once covered in a volcanic layer of porous tufa, but most of it was washed away by the Paglia and Tiber rivers. All that was left was the plateau, with walls so sheer that whoever lived on top of it found they could easily defend it against attacking enemies. The buildings of the city are built of the same tufa on which Orvieto rests, giving the place a stark and somber look, and you get a cold feeling from its stony walls. The streets do nothing to dispel this feeling and they seem to always turn at right angles. This atmosphere is relieved only by the enormous Duomo rising head and shoulders above the rest of the town, its sparkling mosaic front visible for miles around.

Since it was so easy to defend humans have been living here for thousands of years. The earliest inhabitants may have been nomads from the Bronze and Iron age tribes, but the first of the more recent settlers were the Etruscans and they called the first village they built Velzna. It was an important member of the Etruscan twelve city confederation, and also its religious centre. The Romans attacked and leveled the city in 265 BC, sending the Etruscans packing to the shores of Lake Bolsena. The Romans then built a port on the Tiber for the convenience of ships to carry home a steady supply of the famous wine produced in the area. This wine is still much in demand today and is known as Orvieto Classico, one of Italy's finest whites. As a medieval comune, the city grew in all directions until the Black Death annihilated the population in the 14th century. Soon after, Orvieto became part of the Papal States and a holiday home to some 32 popes.