The lowest point of Orvieto, in piazza Cahen, is where the notorious St. Patrick’s Well is situated. It can be visited right to the bottom thanks to two convenient flights of stairs that sink to about 60 metres inside the hollow of the well itself. It’s a work of incredible engineering, designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Young in 1527 on assignment by Pope Clement VII who sought refuge here to escape the troops of Carlo V who destroyed Rome. The two flights of stairs wind around one another like a double DNA helix, one serves to go down and the other to come back up. The ingenious system made it possible to directly reach the water with pack animals and then go back up without getting in the way of those going down.