Halfway along the communication routes, both ancient and modern, which run between Florence and Rome lies the territory of Orvieto. The towns included in the District are Allerona, Baschi, Castelgiorgio, Casteviscardo, Ficulle, Fabro, Monteleone, Montegabbione, Montecchio, Parrano, Porano, San Venanzo and, of course, Orvieto.
Historically the territory over which Orvieto once held sway was much greater, especially in the Middle Ages when it reached its maximum extension with the city-state of Urbsvetus, a strip of land that crossed over from the Tiber all the way to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Today it belongs to the Umbria Region, although the millenary traditions that connect the area of Orvieto to upper Lazio and southern Tuscany; the bonds are always very strong from the touristic point of view.
The Territory of Orvieto is now served by the most modern communication route (Autostrada del Sole and Direttissima Roma-Firenze) which transit through the area, and it stretches out into a hinterland where the typical landscape of volcanic origin, with precipitous formations of basalt and tuff, changes into the soft hills and plains typical of river country, from the calanchi or clayvalleys to the lowest foothills of the Apennines.
Nature is still uncontaminated in the dense wooded areas of this interesting and varied landscape, and the hand of man can be seen in the masterly tilling of the fields, with pride of place going to the vineyards, where the famous wine of Orvieto has been produced from time immemorable.
The presence of man also has left its mark in the numerous inhabited centers scattered throughout the verdant countryside, to begin with the outlying administrative divisions of the town of Orvieto, all hamlets whose beginnings date back to the Middles Ages.