When you are travelling in Italy in a rented car and are stopping in those Tuscany-Umbria hill towns the main problems are parking and not getting to ZTL areas. There are several solutions:
- Find hotel in the center of the town, drive through narrow crooked streets in the hill, find parking spot somewhere and hope that hotel provides ZTL validation.
- Find hotel in the center of the town, do not drive to the hotel, leave the car in the parking lot outside and go to the hotel on foot, probably using elevators and escalators (there are in most towns, attended by tourists).
- Find hotel outside the town, with parking lot, close to the elevator/escalator if possible.
In Orvieto I selected the third variant and stayed in B&B CasaSelita. Was really happy. Owners provide parking, even free sufficient parking space if the lot is full, explain in detail how to get to the town. You need to walk for 5 minutes up the steep path through olive grove and then get to an elevator and you are in the center of Orvieto. Sign warns that one should take the path on his own risk because sometimes it is shared by wild boars. The owner said that possibility of meeting one is low. So those signs were considered.an additional attraction.
The B&B itself meets all standards: clean, convenient rooms, good breakfast (standard for Italian B&Bs), free kitchen access with tea, coffee, cookies etc. If I ever plan coming to Orvieto (which I’d like to), I’ll try to stay in CaseSelita again.