Good day sunshine! (aka Frankie's Crap Chute)

(Dave writing)

Wendy gives a shout out to all her peeps!!  

After a great night of food and wine in Montalcino, we packed up Jeni and Doran's Ford Mondeo wagon and headed SE towards Orvieto via Siena.  There was an Avis located in Siena and now that we were all together, we needed to drop off our rental car and cram into theirs.  Doran was a master packer and I would guess he played plenty of Tetris in his days.  Once we were in Siena, we decided to check out Piazza del Campo and Il Duomo which were both inside a walled off area inside the city.  Piazza del Campo was the best people watching we've experienced on the trip thus far!  Tons of punk kids running around with american 80's-esque t-shirts and hats.  We have also noticed that the general teen fashion here isn't that much different than back home.  They still wear the retarded baseball caps a little cocked off center with a flat brim and the stickers still on it.  So lame and unoriginal yet they think they are being unique and really defining themselves...ugh!  Fashion gripes aside, it was really fun to catch some unwanted plumber's crack while we soaked up the sun and ate the massive "pieces" of pizza we had bought.  They were more like a 1/4 of the pizza.  After the pizza we got some Gelato, our first of the trip, and it was quite delicious.  It was on to Il Duomo next, we didn't go in and see it mostly because everyone but Wendy said, "Meh, I've seen enough churches in my life".  Funny but true, once you done enough European sight seeing, you get a little burned out on similar structures and they start to lose their magnificence. It was a beautiful building on the outside though and altogether, it felt like a good site seeing day for all.  

Everyone packed into the Mondeo and we headed towards Ovierto to find a quaint little town with a B&B that we could enjoy.  After some time we stumbled upon the little city of Chiusi.  We wanted to find a Bed & Breakfast and we found that in La Casa Toscana B & B.  The only problem was that there wasn't anyone there to help us.  We walked around to the back and still no answer.  We decided to try and call the number they had written on the sign saying they were open but if no answer, call the number.  We went down to the local Bar and they said the number was wrong because it had too many digits.  We had no idea what to do and as we went back to our car to move on to another town, Franco, the owner pulled up and  showed us the accomodations.  It was 60 Euro/room which was the best deal we've had to date.  He told us that it didn't, however, include Breakfast.  So it really was more like a B, not a B & B.  With our lodging taken care of we were ready to begin the night and an eagerness for the kind of good times not yet present in the trip was overflowing.  Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.  La Casa Toscana had a small porch on the roof of the entrance so we gathered there for a bottle of wine that our kind host brought out.  I kept telling everyone to hurry or we'd miss the sunset but did anyone listen to me?  NOOOOOO!  Well, after the bottle was gone and we made our way to the edge of the town, guess what?  Yep, the sun was down and any gorgeous views to be had were long since gone.  In between gulps of wine I could only murmur an I told you so, as I really didn't care that much anyway.  We were having too much fun already, Doran and I had our cigars and everyone else was running about, taking photos of each other and all the surroundings.  Our destination was Trattoria Zaira, which Doug had read was very good.  Of course, like every restaurant in Italy, they didn't open til 8pm.  We had an hour to kill and wandered next door to the Caffe Venezia.  This gorilla of a man, calling himself Chonko, was the most entertaining bartender we could ask for.  He had a love for blues music and we think he was drunk because our tab was way too low for what we had.  The restaurant was open by this time so we headed over to get some grub.  We were the only ones in there, with Leonard and AC from Holland that we met in Caffe Venezia joining us.  We enjoyed marianted trout, ravioli, rabbit with lemon, beef w/ brunello sauce, short pasta with sausage that we thought had some curry qualities to it and some chicken w/ peppers.  We were right by an open window and Chonko kept coming over and popping in the window to see if we were all having fun.  So much good food and laughs!  After dinner we all got a tour of the wine cellar with an estimated 19,999 bottles in it!  We capped off a great night with a visit to our friend Chonko who, by this time, was wearing afro wigs and serving outlandish drinks.  We eventually headed back to the B with our best night so far logged in the books.