We love Orvieto

Amazing beauty

We love Orvieto for its amazing beauty and stunning hilltop views overlooking the green heart of Italy, Umbria. Our stay this time was a week, to unwind and prepare for our upcoming schedule.

A quick romp

A quick romp through Ottawa back home, taking care of business, a lost bag and delay in Toronto followed by a jet lagged three days blaring through Rome (with a touch of partying) was predicted to leave us spent physically and emotionally.
Getting off the train in Orvieto and taking the funicular up to the town above, our shoulders dropped an inch or two knowing we could relax and switch to Italian mode.

Close-knit community

Orvieto is a small hill town that enjoys a close-knit community of very friendly people. Passegiatta is a great Italian tradition that is still very popular in Orvieto. Usually around 6 or 6:30 pm most of the town suits up to leisurely stroll the main streets and piazzas showing off their new babies, new clothes and catching up on daily news and gossip. For many, it signals aperitivo time where an Aperol spritz or a glass of wine can be enjoyed with complimentary snacks.

via Cavour

A seat on the main street, via Cavour, can provide excellent people watching and the opportunity to pet and say hello to most of the town’s dogs. Something pretty foreign to any town in America, it is a great tradition that enforces community values on a daily basis. For us, even as outsiders, it gives us a sense of place and belonging and immerses us into our surroundings, a great way to begin our grand tour of Italy.

Lucky me

Lucky me I also picked up a cold on my way out of Vancouver and lucky for Nat I lost my voice a day into our Orvieto stay.
Our apartment was cozy and overlooked one of the main streets so I could do my best Italian nonna impression hanging out the second-floor window glaring down at the passers-by.

La Pergola

We are quite familiar with Orvieto and know where most of the hot spots are for food along with a few favourites. A couple of places were inked in straight off the bat to retry what made a great first impression the last time. The first was La Pergola where a simple antipasto of sweet and sour guanciale or “baffo” delighted us on our first visit and did the same this time around. A wicked dish of gnocchi with spinach, truffle and pancetta also made a lasting impression.

Market day

Market day was great to return to since our favourite cheese monger was still there with his epic choices of pecorino and salumi.

Cime di rapa and clementines from Puglia were two of the seasonal treats just hitting the stands of which we jumped on along with one of the better porchetta sandwiches in town from a very nice couple (I think I ate enough last year to put their kids through university)

Charlie Pizzeria

Pizza can be had in many variations in Orvieto of which we have tried a few but we never got to Charlie Pizzeria and this time we were not going to miss it. Charlie’s has a reputation of being the best in town and for good reason. Their pizza chef, Claudio delli Poggi teaches at Pizza University and through meeting him I can tell you he takes his pizza very seriously.

Different crust styles

I was intrigued about the different crust styles he made using different types and grinds of flour. Flour which he sells at the cash register if you are so inclined. Most cooks and chefs will immediately tell you that the famous Tipo 00 is the go to flour but Claudio won’t touch it. Instead, he prefers a stone ground #1 for some crusts which are rolled a little thicker and a 9 for a traditionally thinner crust. He will also make a whole wheat crust to order.

The crust is integral

In turn, the crust is integral to the toppings and creating the proper pizza experience for the other ingredients. My pizza was on a thicker crust that was precut and separated on the plate, this allowed him to hit each piece with the proper amount of lardo after it came out of the oven to create perfect bites on each slice with pieces of roasted chestnuts and potatoes.

Nat’s pizza (picture below) came uncut and traditionally thin, topped with Tallegio cheese, radicchio and speck neither had a tomato base and we didn’t miss it at all.

Claudio

After our meal, Claudio came to introduce himself and with the translation help of the maitre’d, explained his flour choices and reasoning in detail. In essence what I understood is that a 00 is a fine flour that uses just the very nucleus of the wheat grain and as the grind number grows it includes more of the grain in each grind until you reach “integrale” or whole wheat which is the ground grain.
Although interesting, what we enjoyed was the flavour matches expertly devised to elevate the whole pizza to a higher level including the matching crust.

Cold be damned we hiked around the city and its surrounding, melting away our worries, lubricated by a couple of spritzes or a negroni and fed by the beauty of the city, its people, and its food.