3/50.- Umbria, Orvieto, Cathedral

The main (though by no means the only) sight to be seen in Orvieto is its magnificent cathedral, whose facade is lavishly decorated with colourful mosaics and marble sculptures. The best moment to view the facade is in the late afternoon, when the sun is in the west and makes the mosaics sparkle, or in the early evening, when the rays of the setting sun give the pinkish-white marble a golden hue. The body of the building is, somewhat surprisingly, built in alternating layers of white and black marble, resulting in a striped « Pisanic » style characteristic of the architecture of Pisa and adjacent regions.

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