Orvieto is a very ancient city, the area of which was inhabited since the Iron Age, then dominated by  the Etruscans with the name “Velzna”.

The antiquity of the city is well attested by the name of medieval origin, "Urbs Vetus," or "Old Town", to remember, indeed, the old “Velzna”, which was located in an area virtually inaccessible, and of equipped with more powerful fortifications. "Velzna" was a rich city, due to the fact that it controlled the river communications between Etruria and Rome.

Many Latin writers remembered its power and wealth, such as Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), who called it "Oppidum Tuscorum opulentissimum" (“Rich fortified city of the Etruscans”), and Valerius Maximus (first century AD), who considered “Volsinii Veteres” “Caput Etruriae” ( “Capital of Etruria”).

According to most reliable studies, the etymology of “Velzna” (Latinized in “Volsinii”),  has its roots in the Etruscan “Vels”, refers to a noble, and it means “belonging to Vels”, and hence the term refers to the possessions belonging to this Etruscan family (See M. Cristofani, “Siena: le Origini. Testimonianze e miti archeologici” [“Siena: Origins. Some Evidences and archaeological myths”], Olschki, 1979, p. 4).

According to Massimo Pallottino (1909-1990), one of the greatest scholars of Etruscology, the ancient root "Vel"  returns "[...] with constancy both in the personnel names, and in place-names; for instance, 'vel', 'Velthur' (pre-names ) 'veltha', ‘velthune’ (God)  ‘Velca’ , ‘Velzna’ , ‘Velathri’, names of cities [...]" (See Massimo Pallottino, “Saggi di Antichità” [“Some essays about the Antiquity”], 1979, p. 494) . Orvieto, before the Roman conquest,  offered a courageous resistance and in fact it was the last of the Etruscan cities to give in  the Romans, who destroyed it and deported all the inhabitants in a colony near the Lake of Bolsena.

In medieval times there was a new flowering of the city, which became, between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, one of the most powerful Italian Cities with strong expansionist ambitions, which led the city to struggle very hard against the neighbouring towns, as Siena, Viterbo and Perugia. Orvieto instead maintained a firm alliance with the powerful Florence, and this increased its prestige and well-being, becoming the favourite residence, especially in the fourteenth century, of the Popes and the Papal Court.

Like many Italian cities, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Orvieto was in the middle of bloody battles among the powerful families of the city, particularly between the Family of Filippeschi and Monaldeschi, though eventually it became part of the Church State, under the rule of which it remained until the unification of Italy (1861).

Today the economic development of Orvieto is based almost exclusively on tourism, as the city's artistic heritage, both the Etruscan and for the art treasures of the cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption, to which the best artists of Italy participated in building it.