Paris --> Orvieto!

Salut!

On our last morning in Paris, we took the morning to get packed up before heading to breakfast at the Comptoir du Panthéon. Despite being so close to the Pantheon during our stay, we had not actually made it up there yet - so it was fun to explore the surrounding streets on that final morning. 

We then walked through the neighborhood a bit more, passing by the Pantheon itself and the Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.

We then checked out and took the train (plus another short, automatic driverless train) over to the Orly Airport for our flight to Rome. We were delayed by 2 hours because of storms in Rome, so we ended up spending almost 5 hours at the airport before our flight. A bummer, but there wasn't much more we could have done given the 11 AM checkout and 1 PM originally scheduled flight time. Orly was busy and somewhat stressful - already small but even busier with the delays. But, once we finally took off, we had a great view over Paris and I was even able to spot the Eiffel Tower from my seat! As we approached Rome, the captain came over the speakers and announced that we would have to circle due to thunderstorms in the area for about 30 minutes. I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical about the storms until we got close and realized how much thunder and lightning there was! Thankfully, we landed safely and in Rome!

We picked up our rental car and then embarked on the most adventurous part of our trip - the drive up to Agriturismo Lapone, where we stayed just outside of Orvieto for a few days. While we had originally planned to eat dinner at the Agriturismo, the flight delays meant that was not possible. So, we stopped at PizzeriAlessio, a local spot somewhat along the way. It was pouring rain and pitch dark, but I popped out of the car and ordered us a few slices of pizza that the restaurant heated up for us. We ate the pizza quickly before heading out for the remainder of the drive!

Our drive took us through the Umbrian countryside, passing through many small towns on the way up. While the GPS originally said it would be about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the airport, it ended up taking us just over 4 hours including our pizza stop. This was likely a combination of trying to take it slower on the roads since we were newer to Italy driving, our pizza stop that was a bit out of the way, and the ridiculously small gravel road (Località Benano) that had received nearly 2 inches of rain that same day. The Località may have been fine during the day, but it was a tough combination - a dark, one-lane road where we had no cell service and tight quarters with the trees. We finally got to our hotel room at 10:45 PM after the crazy day of travel and went right to sleep! 

Amy