 Hello. I am the storyteller. And today we will talk about Orvieto. Orvieto is a city and commune in the province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuf. The city rises dramatically above the almost vertical faces of tuf cliffs that are completed by defensive walls built of the same stone, called Tufa. The ancient city, populated since the Truscan times, has usually been associated with the Truscan Volsna, but some modern scholars differ. Orvieto was certainly a major center of a Truscan civilization. The archaeological museum houses some of the Truscan artifacts that have been recovered in the immediate area. An interesting artifact that might show the complexity of ethnic relations in ancient Italy and how such relations could be peaceful is the inscription on a tomb in the Orvieto Canicella Necropolis, Mi Avales Catacinas, I am of Aval Catacina, with an Etruscan Latin first name and a family name that is believed to be of Celtic origin. Orvieto was annexed by Rome in the 3rd century BC. Because of its site on a high, steep bluff of tuf, of volcanic rock, the city was virtually impregnable. After the collapse of the Roman Empire its defensible site gained new importance, the Episcopal seat was transferred from Volsena, and the city was held by Goths and by Lombards before its self-governing commune was established in the 10th century, in which consuls governed under a feudal oath of fealty to the bishop. Orvieto's relationship to the papacy has been a close one. In the 10th century Pope Benedict VII visited the city of Orvieto with his nephew, Filippo Albarasi, who later settled there and became consul of the city-state in 1016. By the 13th century three papal palaces had been built.