May 27th 1992
Today was our day to drive south along the cost to the Planeta Winery. After our devastating "escorted exit" from Donnafugato, we were looking forward to our second winery trip. At Planeta, we stayed the night. The resort was beautiful with vineyards all around and a wonderful view of the mountains and ocean in the distance. It is a memory I will hold true for the rest of my life. Wine tasting was not the main idea at Planeta Winery, believe it or not. It was the dinner we had there. The table sat thirty strong with large glass windows to the kitchen. We sat watching the chef prepare our entrees and pre-paid a little extra to have the chef's wine suggestion with each of his signature dishes. We were having a wonderful time talking and joking with the other guests and the wine was flowing like water. Then to my dismay, I heard sobbing. When I looked over to my right, I found Frasier's chair empty. I discovered him under the table weeping like a toddler. Well, here the Crane boys strike again. I believe mom coined the phrase that "when we make a scene, we never fail to be seen" and, might I add, "we always go theatrical with it". Perhaps we had too much wine. We were so embarrassed, that we excused ourselves and spent the rest of the night talking about Frasier's feelings. It so happens that the last time he was in Italy, he had been engaged to a different woman who had left him at the alter. Inevitably, he had bottled that up inside himself and wasn't quite over it as he thought he was. Hind sight is 20/20. When we dismissed ourselves from the dinner, we should have left the table and gone back to our room. Instead, we carried on our lengthy conversation of Frasier's emotions under the dining table.
In the morning, we obviously decided to have breakfast delivered to our room.