Orvieto

Orvieto was annexed by Rome in the third century BC. Because of its site on a high, steep bluff, the city was virtually impregnable. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the episcopal seat was transferred from Bolsena, and the city was held by Goths and by Lombards before its self-governing commune was established in the 10th century. Orvieto's relationship to the papacy has been a close one. By the thirteenth century, three papal palaces had been built.

Orvieto controlled the road between Florence and Rome. It was a large town with a population of about 30,000 at the end of the 13th century. From 1201 Orvieto governed itself through a podestà, who was as often as not the bishop, however, acting in concert with the "captain of the people". In the 13th century feuds divided the city, which was at the apogée of its wealth but found itself often at odds with the papacy. Pope Urban IV stayed at Orvieto from 1262 to 1264.

The city became one of the major cultural centers of its time when Thomas Aquinas taught there. A small university had its origins in a studium generale that was granted to the city by Pope Gregory IX in 1236. The territory of Orvieto was under papal control long before it was officially added to the Papal States and it remained a papal possession until 1860, when it was annexed to unified Italy.

The butte on which Orvieto was built is soft volcanic tuff and the Etruscans already had caves dug into it. Still today there is a labyrinth of caves and tunnels beneath the surface. The underground city boasts more than 1000 tunnels, galleries, wells, stairs, cellars, and cisterns.