Travel-Orvieto Funicular Ticket TB02

Please drop this item in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Travel bug photos are appreciated and will be re-posted here.

Orvieto is a hill town in central Italy.  It is situated on the flat summit of a large plateau of volcanic tuff. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, rising above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are completed by defensive walls built of the same stone called Tufa (see the photo).  It was a center of the Etruscan Civilization which existed almost a thousand years before the Romans. During Rome's military expansion, it took a two and a half year seige for Julius Ceasar's army to overcome the defenses.

There is a modern road to the top now, but it is only available to residents.  All others must use the elevator from a parking garage or, if arriving at the city by train, use the funicular. The funicular starts across the street from the railway station and takes passengers up 515 feet to the Piazza Cahen in the city center,  The line passes through the a tunnel in the rampart (see photo).

The line was originally built in 1888, and took the form of water-ballast counterbalanced funicular. This line was in use until 1970, when it was abandoned. Twenty years later, in 1990, a new electrically hauled funicular was built on the route of the old.  The cars of the new line are unmanned, and the whole line is controlled by a single controller in the upper station. The line operates every 15 minutes, or more frequently if traffic demands it.