At breakfast today downstairs at our Locanda I heard the chorus of “American Boy” echoing in from the kitchen.  I can’t believe, in this random hill town in the middle of nothingness, people know and listen to this crap.  Blows my mind.

Our first stop today, about 50 miles away, was a small town called Potigliano.  There’s a synagogue in the town and of course, it was closed because we got there during naptime.  Sadly there are only three Jews left there, not nearly enough for a minion or to have a traditional Shabbat service.  But still, it was cool to see.  The town is built into the top of a hill and the façade is very impressive.  I would say it’s worth a visit.

Next was Sovana, a very small and cute town with a Duomo built around 1100.  Cool to see and fun to walk through.  Finally, our last stop of the day was Orvieto and its huge Duomo.  The architecture and mosaic on the outside of the Duomo is really impressive and the inside is also pretty grand but not over the top like in Venice.  We walked the streets and went back to a little bakery I had been to a few years ago with a friend to get some biscotti.  We got lost walking through the streets and of course ended up back in the center of town at the Duomo where we had parked.  Offseason is great because you can park anywhere and drive anywhere and no one says anything to you.

We went back to Il Frantoio for dinner and this time had a pizza lesson before dinner.  They showed us how to make the dough and how to stretch it the right way.  Can’t wait to experiment.

We ordered a pizza with truffles and everything else we had last night.  We watched the pizza chef make the pizza and slide it into the wood-burning oven.  It came out paper thin in about four minutes, perfectly browned.  This pizza is the best pizza I have ever had ever from anywhere in the world ever.  Period.  The rest of the meal was just as good as last night and afterwards we fantasized with our waiter, Fano, for a while about opening a pizza place in Los Angeles or New York and having him come and run it with us.  I take back what I said yesterday, if you are within 200 kilos of this place, you should come and try it.  Sleep in your car and have lunch the next day too.  It’s worth it.  And it’s so cheap: three or four Euro for a pizza.

Fano and I are Facebook friends.  We are going to take over the whole pizza-loving world.