Perched on top of a tufaceous rock plateau, the city of Orvieto rises out of the valley below like an island from the sea. Millions of years ago a sea did in fact cover the area, now wooded, where the river Paglia runs.

Orvieto was built on a tuff cliff, which stands in the middle of a wonderful landscape of fields and vineyards, in the flat valley of the river Paglia. This town, because of its structural characteristics, is a particular example of symbiosis and integration between nature and the men's work. Especially in the medieval period, the Orvieto territory was much wider than now, when the city-state Urbsvetus reached its largest extension along a tansversal area, that extended from the Tevere as far as the Mediterranean Sea. The present Orvieto territory extends through a characteristic landscape, made of basalt and tuff formations, of nice hills and plans, which transformed later into the first Appeninnes'outposts. This landscape is formed by thick woods and by the human agency, with cultivated fields, that are interrupted by the grapevines from which they get the good Orvieto wine.