Orvieto — Day 16

Our fundraiser post-trip departs today for Orvieto, picturesque medieval Umbrian town. On the way our bus stops at an exceptionally beautiful hilltop winery for lunch, wine sampling, wine lessons and a blessing from John. A tranquil relief from busy Rome.

We check into our 5-star boutique hotel, the Palazzo Petrus, which was originally a 16th century nobleman’s mansion. The walls, doorways and basic structure are still from that era, but some modern interior elements and furnishings have been added so that it feels like you’ve been time-machined into the Renaissance while still in a bubble of modern comfort and taste. The patina of old stone doorways and fireplaces fuses with sleek contemporary solid-colored surfaces. I’ve included a few shots of our room and the hotel interior.

Tremendous care has been put into this combination in a way that only the Italians can do. Their aesthetic still retains the experience built up from of centuries of artistic wisdom so that the modern doesn’t feel like it opposes the ancient, but the two blend. I don’t know how they do it.

You wouldn’t think it would work, but it does. The only way you can pull this off is if you don’t think of your own culture as superior, so that you’re not pushing against the past, and this enables you to find commonalities and harmonies instead of coming out of a more prideful point of view that is built upon an assumed opposition. And of course the Italians have a lot of experience in making the new work with the old. In the USA we’re barreling into a better future, so get out of the way. It’s not necessarily an inferior point of view, and it may be necessary if you’re going to sweep out and deep-clean a planet, but it can result in a certain amount of aesthetic rudeness and collateral damage.

We take a walking tour of our new idyllic little Italian hometown, ending up at the Duomo, the town cathedral. One thing that the Italians haven’t mastered is how to marry narrow cobblestone streets with the modern automobile, and in between taking in our lovely town we plaster ourselves against medieval stone walls to allow a car or truck to squeeze through.

We get a guided tour of the Duomo and then a dessert to top off the day: a private performance on the cathedral’s organ that originated in the 1584 (of course with modern updates), played by Riccardo Bonci, the cathedral’s organist. The pieces he plays include Bach and Buxtehude, and it feels to me like we’re getting a healing sound bath to help us recover from two weeks of touring. Riccardo gives us a talk on the organ and its history, and answers our questions.

Thanks to Susan Forkush, who lives most of the year in Orvieto, for helping to organize this peaceful respite.

View the Photos by David Sand from Day 16 Italy 2025

Orvieto — Day 17
Afternoon: Sharing with John Morton

A free morning to explore Orvieto, hang out at the hotel or get a spa treatment. Q&A with John in the afternoon. According to my personal measuring scale, developed over a galactic time frame in consultation with the karmic board, the master Chohans of the color rays, and a representative sampling of Lords of the planes above Soul and their angelic assisting teams, John is in great form and the sharings are profound. (Evening is the wedding of Amy Munroe and Gary Brown, which I’ll post separately.)

View the Photos by David Sand from Day 17 Italy 2025

Italy Day 17 Evening – Orvieto – Wedding

An idyllic Italian small town wedding at our hotel. Amy Munroe and Gary Brown. John Morton and Leigh Taylor-Young Morton officiating. After the ceremony we pose for photos and flower-petal-throwing at the town’s cathedral (Duomo). The reception is a real gourmet meal with so many courses I lost count and no one else remembers. Tartare, octopus, beef cheek, a wild pigeon ravioli, and gelato with a coffee/kombucha sauce were a few that I recall. A standing ovation for the chef at the end.

Everyone got up and shared about the trip, their love for each other and the Browns. A beautiful warmth and intimacy came in with these sharings, a flowering of all the love that we’d created over the past two and a half weeks of traveling together with the Traveler, as Travelers. We hired a cellist who we’d seen as a street performer around town. He ended up being included in the sharing, and seemed really moved by the whole event. John later said he got a little spiritual boost, if ya know what I mean. At the end Ezra presented a gift of a silver cake cutter that necessitated the presentation of another course (a cake of course).

I did black and whites of some of the photos, which remind me of stills from the golden age of Italian cinema.

View the Photos by David Sand from Day 17 Amy and Gary Wedding Orvieto Italy 2025