I returned- to Orvieto this time. Since I never kept track of my time there, I can only include the highlights. I met a darling little boy (about 8-9 yrs old) there who ran after me (i could hear the footsteps on the cobbled street) to invite me to his house. I went with him to meet his mother, who invited me for dinner (I took a rain check til that Sunday). This was the real beginning of my understanding of the hospitality of the Italians. It was October...I remember because it was the night of the earthquake in Assisi and Perugia. I slept through it...and in Orvieto the duomo lost some tiles from the sanctuary. But a small loss compared to Assisi! This night I dined in a wonderful underground restaurant, (La Grotte del Furano) and met Franco, the head waiter. It was a piano bar as well, and had lots of rooms carved out of the tufa stone. This day I also met Roberto Dottorini, a sales rep for Italian sweaters whose territory was Tuscany. He invited me to go to Perugia with him and when I asked him 'when?' he said 'Adesso!" (this means NOW). I graciously (?) declined, but took his telephone number-who knows when one might need a guide for Tuscany?

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