The train goes to Orvieto Scalo, which is on the plain. Orvieto is impressively situated on top of a cliff. We cycled the four kilometers uphill to the old town.

We only had the town map in the Lonely Planet, which shows just a few random street names. Orvieto is a rabbit warren of old, but very beautiful streets and so we wheeled our bikes through the town, navigating by the sun, helped by trial and error and the odd clue from the map.

We finally found Via Ripa Medici but couldn’t find number 14. We eventually discovered that we wanted ‘Vicola Ripa Medici 14’, and a 'vicola' is a small street running off a 'via'.

The apartment was in an historic building but fully renovated. It was furnished and decorated in traditional style with antiques, including a radio and a black upright typewriter.

The owner spoke a little English and was helpful and friendly. She left a home-made pie as a welcoming present.

The view was stunning, right out over the city walls. In fact one of the viewpoints shown on the tourist map of the town was directly below our window.

There was a washing machine but no drier so we hung our clothes from the washing line below the window.