Dinner at Labirinto di Adriano, a charming traditional trattoria in the backstreets of Orvieto, comes with something of an unusual coda. After delicious plates of handmade pasta – coated in the kind of silky, cheesy sauce that only the Italians know how to do – and succulent pork cheek, our host, Alessia, suggests we might like to explore what lies beneath the restaurant.

Following her downstairs, we discover an extraordinary tangle of underground passageways, caves and staircases that date back more than 2,500 years, to when the Etruscans first began to dig a network of wells, cellars and tunnels into the soft volcanic rock.