The Doors of Orvieto – Part #3
Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time), by using the blue link-up button below.
This is the last of my doors for the ancient town of Orvieto. If you missed them over the previous two weeks you can check out Part #1 here and Part #2 here.
The amazing thing about these smaller towns and villages is how much effort everyone seems to put into the small details in order to make each place, and each door stand out from all of the others.
Whether it’s the style, the finish, the shape, the hardware, or of course the color, everyone has their own take on what the ideal door needs to look like in order to both fit in and stand out.
I guess this is easier to do in milder climates where weather-proofing isn’t nearly as big a concern. I can confirm that none of these beauties would have fared well through the winter months in my part of the world 😀
In the meantime we wandered through many of the small streets and alleyways marveling at all of this ancient beauty.
I also came to the conclusion that people who live in these places probably don’t move very often because hauling furniture and appliances (and moving trucks!) into tight spaces like this is not a fun thing to do.
We only spent a few hours in Orvieto but the doors, the architecture, the atmosphere, the history, and most importantly, the company we were with, made it a magical afternoon of discovery.
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These are wonderful photos:) They remind me of a book I read recently and I like very much. It was written by a historian who did pretty impressing research about – doors. And windows. And it sounds a little strange but it was extremely interesting:)
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Thank you and welcome 🙂
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pretty doors.
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Another great collection Norm!! Those alleyways do look tight. It adds to their intriguing appeal, but I wouldn’t want to have to move house through them. The door right above the alley shot is my favorite. 🙂
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Oh! Oh! Oh! That first door with the 2/3-1/3 split! I love those! And the one with the reflection in the fanlight above it, and the ghost door or whatever it is that lookslike a little door butnot a door…. Wonderful variety.
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Thanks Marian. Orvieto was a feast for the eyes when it comes to variety 🙂
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Hi Norm,
All of these doors are magical and each totally out of my league. I love the shot through the alleyway and while I usually go for the zoom shot and forget to go wide, when I get home I then regret not capturing the context. We don’t have weather concerns with our doors here and relatively few security concerns as well as I’m often at home and we have our three dogs.
We helped a friend move into a place with a tight spiral staircase to get into the upstairs flats. Couldn’t get her fridge in and half her stuff had to go in over the balcony. That would definitely push me towards minimalist living.
Best wishes,
Rowena
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Outdoor spiral staircases are a common architectural feature around here. They’re gorgeous, except on moving day 😀
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There’s often a tension between aesthetics and practicality with architecture. Cost is another swear word. We’re wanting to knock our place down and rebuild and after seeing a place that’s pretty much like what we’d like go up for sale down the street, we had a bit of a look at project homes online last night. It would be quite within our grasp if I was working, especially full time but there would be other costs. I keep hoping that my writing’s going to pay off somehow. I’m the ultimate dreamer!
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Love it when a door is properly framed by stone . . .these are lovely 🙂
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I agree. Thanks Becky 🙂
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Another awesome collection, Norm!
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Thank you for the kind words 🙂
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I wonder what was behind that little brick door? I like all the different doors. They don’t shop in the big square boxes like we do! Orvieto is one of our favorites!
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No they don’t shop in the same places we do; I can imagine that more than a few of these are custom-made.
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Beautiful. Charming. Thank you!
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Glad you like them 🙂
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🙂
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Fantastic doors.
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Thank you Sherry 🙂
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The first blue door is sooo cute! Never thought about moving furniture in and out as a reason. I wonder if funds may be another. Thanks for hosting!
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Thank you!
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As always, beautiful doors chuck full of history. Nicely done.
Pat
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Thank you Pat 🙂
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Looks like a town full of non-conformists! I like the vertical door openers….
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Folks who want their doors to stand out, that’s for sure. Thanks Jan 🙂
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I love the bits beside and on top of the doors. The alleyway is amazing too.
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Thanks Brenda. It’s the variety that keeps me fascinated 🙂
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OK, Norm. I think you missed a door. There’s numbers 27, 28 and 30. Where’s 29? Sorry about hijacking the site with a feeble excuse for a door this week.
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That’s OK, by the last few days I was getting so door-jaded that I skipped a whole bunch 😀
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Great collection of stately, massive doors with beautiful European hardware. Nice. 🙂
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Thanks Judy. It is a magical place 🙂
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Great! After seeing your trio of Orveto posts I’m in the process of making my own for today. Just to show that we were not only enabling your habit. You’ve got many more great door shots than I do but I’ve got Norm in mine. 😉
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And you got some wonderful shots of my sweetie that are some of my fondest memories of the trip, and for which I am very grateful. Grazie my friend 🙂
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You’re always welcome, Norm!
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The third one: beauty 🙂
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I agree. Thanks 🙂
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I really like that first door, a modern beauty in lovely old setting. The arches are great, but I never really thought about the survival rate of this type of door in the colder climes where we live. I do think about how difficult it would be to get large items of any sort through the streets, make the turns, and get through the doors. And sometimes things that are charming in other settings would be charming in our particular corner of the world and sometimes are only charming because we see them somewhere else. 🙂
janet
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Yes Janet as I get older I notice that charming in one place often would just be impractical somewhere else 🙂
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Wow – That first door, with the true curved panels at the top is wonderful. Of course, I love the fact that it is a 1/3 – 2/3 split. There’s something about those doors that really appeals to me.
The picture looking down the narrow alley gives a real feel for how close these buildings are.
The tine door that is (or looks like) stone is amazing.
Great photos, Norm!
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Thanks Dan. What caught my eye was how so many have split doors even the ones in single-width openings. Here we’d all find that annoying I think.
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It does reduce the room needed for the swing. But I think you’re right.
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These are the arched doors of my dreams. Well, if I dreamed of doors, which I don’t, but you get my meaning. That first one is unique and most interesting. I’ve never seen anything like it.
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Hang around here long enough Ally and you’ll be dreaming of doors too.
It doesn’t happen often, but I do sometimes have dreams that include doors 😀
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Another great selection of doors from that lovely old town, Norm. The ‘hidden’ door in that stone wall probably covers a meter for electricity or water. I’ve never seen one that attempted to blend in like that before.
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Thanks Jean. I assumed that camouflaged one was for access to a meter, or a shut-off valve of some kind. They did a terrific job of blending it in.
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That ghost window is filled in very well, with the new stones matching the old ones.
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Yes they did a pretty good job of camouflaging it 🙂
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A magical afternoon of discovery, indeed. Those pathways look so inviting. You’re right about the elements, of course. I couldn’t have a wooden door, either. I have a wood-sided garage and thus, I know I couldn’t have a wooden door. I have thought the same thing about moving, and how small the doors are. Not a lot of maneuvering room for oversized couches and King size beds and mammoth refrigerators, the way we do things here. For me, it makes places like Orvieto all the more charming.
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We had wooden doors here for years but the yearly maintenance is murder. Sanding and re-staining every spring and god forbid if you skip a year. So glad we changed those out last spring.
I get what you say and agree that the quirks make a place more charming, though I’m starting to think that ‘charm’ could be a synonym for ‘impractical’ 😀
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I remember that, too! You had a lovely wooden door, but the maintenance. I get it.
Impractical *nods* But charming a f.
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After roaming around the small back streets of Greece, I came to the conclusion that the wonderful variety in doors – as well as their exterior decoration – probably had a lot to do with residents actually wanting to find their door easily – especially after a libation or two 😉
I agree that these old wooden doors would never survive a Canadian winter – nor provide any of the insulation we need! It’s interesting that there is a preference for a split door even when the width of the frame looks like it could comfortably handle a single door … eg the 1st photo. I can’t help but think that fat North Americans need not apply 🙂
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Your conclusion on the reasons for wanting their doors to be easily recognizable makes a lot of sense 😀
Yes, all of the split doors even in single width openings is quite unusual and would not fly with us in North America.
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