Day 5 - Orvieto and Montepulciano

Deciding that since we were living it up in a hill top fortess that we should leave the 6 foot windows wide open all night.....bad idea. I froze my ass off and hardly slept. What stopped me from closing them them? Not a clue. I'm an idiot. Faye on the other hand, got up, found blankets, put one on herself, but none on me.....grrrrr.
So anyways, Faye got up early and took a last walk around town, and i closed the window and finally and Faye gave me a blanket and i slept for 2 hours until 9:30. WE were outta the hotel by 10am and Faye sent me down to the tourist parking lot where we were parked to get the car and drive it UP the big hill into the city so we would save teh bus fare and Faye the walk down. Driving up streets that are as wide as a transport truck (the small way), is very nerve wracking, especially driving a 4-cylinder diesel, manula transmission when you aren't used to standards at all. Anyways, after a few close calls, all was fine, i grabbed Faye and we headed north.
We decided to take a back highway instead of the A1 (super highway) so that we could enjoy the views of the increasingly mountainous region (heading out of the Umbrio region into the Siena region). I definately became an expert mountain driver today. I've never seen so many tight turns and have never gone up and down so much in my life. The back highway was great though with some unbelievable views. It's nuts how many villages there are built on the top of hills and we saw more vino fields and grapes than i could have ever imagined. We stopped along the way and tried unsuccesfully to go on a wine tour south of Ficulle and then eventually tasted some wines outside of Allerona and bought wine right there at the Monrubio plant where we saw many many tractors with grapes in a huge bucket on teh back weighing in and out (just like the chip trucks in IF, but makine wine instead of paper). We each bought a bottle of what we both thought wasw the best white called 'Roio, Orvieto Classico'. Somebody let me know if you can find it at the liquor store and how much its worth (we paid 2 euro....3 canadian dollars a bottle).
From there we slowly weaved our way thoruhg 'San Casciano dei Bagni', 'Piazze', 'Cetona', 'Sorteano', 'Chianchiano', and then finally into Montepulciano, another hilltop medieval town very much like Orvieto. The difference being that Orvieto was pretty much mostly flat once in the town, but Montepulciano is prety much completely built on an angle all the way up to the Piaza Grande at the top of the town. I'm not sure what the height difference is, but i'm guessing 100 ft or so from the top of town to the bottom walls. Very steep.
We couldn't fine a place in town, so Faye eventually (after fighting with the bitches in teh tourist office) got us a place in some ladies basement. After getting very lost trying to find the place, we eventually found it. The old lady came out to meet us but spoke ZERO english. So me and the old lady tried figuring each other out for a good 5 minutes before she muttered something about her only knowing italian and French!!!! Wow! What a difference it is to go from not being able to communicate to understanding each other perfectly. The room was at least 5 times bigger than our room in Rome and at a cheaper price. We each had our own double beds, and to top things off, they live on a hillside looking over a HUGE valley with huge roling moutains in teh background (kind've actulaly reminded me of Judy and Harry's place, but in Italy). Definately the stuff they make postcards out of.
It was at least 5pm by this point, so me and Faye headed into the fortress and all of the way to the top (20 - 30 minute walk from the base= to have a glass each of rossa wine made locally that goes for about 80 Euro a bottle. I bought them both at a price of about 11 Euro total. Very good stuff called Barollo i think.
From therew we had a nice Italian meal with some more vino and then i drove us home. Up tomorrow early hopefully to see more of Montepulciano and finally use an internet cafe and phone. It's been pretty much impoosible to find places since Rome. There definately aren't pay phones all over and i still don't know how to call Canada anyawys. I asked Heather in an email on my first day to send instructions, but of course i haven't had a chance to go online to read them, so i've been screwed. And don't dare ask a local. They're all dicks as far as i've seen so far. I've had more blank stares when i nod my head or smile at local than i had bottles of beer all the way through university (well, not quite). I think i'm going to start sticking my tongue out at some locals tomorrow just to see if they flinch. Dad told me that the French were 'stuck up dickheads'; i'll compare my experience in the future few weeks. Off to the Chianti region tomorrow for lots of good wines.