wine tasting & pizza

I felt foolish.  Sleeping in til eleven thirty.  I had woken up, a few times, earlier in the morning but heard nothing.  Her dad turned a light off at one point and the fan flipped off.  I only mention it becuase the following day he said he was surprised that I slept with the fan on my face.  I do live in Arizona and the fan is currently pointing towards my face...both of them. 
Instead of showering, I threw on a top and hurried downstairs to meet them.  I was led to believe that we would be wine tasting.  I figured that it would be a short venture and I could shower in a couple of hours.  Little did I know that I would be enjoying a leisurely lunch and a prosecco tasting. 
Debora met us and we dined as a family.  Bruschetta, mozzarella, quiche, some veggies and wine.  Ample prosecco and red wine.  The meal concluded with an after dinner drink and I skipped the dessert portion.  Dessert was offered but I declined.  I wasn't interested (can you believe it?)
A short while later, we drove around the area.  Grapes, grapes, grapes and beautiful landscaping.  I would have taken more photos but my battery was on the fritz.  This, after, a few weeks of purchasing the latest camera.  Makes me a little annoyed with canon as the previous model had a lens error that led to its demise.  For the time being, I will make due with a battery that had little life in it.
I digress.  We stopped at a tasting room and toasted life with prosecco.  The entire day was full of conversation.  I wish I knew Italian--I do.  I understood parts of the conversations based on hand gestures, passion and words, but, I had no way of including myself with speech.  I did, however, with english or random spanish.  Still, it is not the same. 
Lovely day and in continued.  Debora, Agnese and I chose to keep drinking.  We ended up at the restaurant we had dined at the previous night.  I believed we would have one, maybe two beverages.  That was naive.  We had multiple beers and then considered the food factor.  I switched from beer to wine as it was filling me up too much.  We talked politics, travel, school, personal history, love, etc.  Eventually, Francesca met up with us, too.  Soft spoken, kind and knew english.  She spoke a little of it but understood what I had to contribute to the conversation.

Debora knew of a pizzeria that was worthy.  Magnificent pizza.  We walked up to the establishment and it was full of patrons either finishing up or waiting for a table.  It had this raw vibe of local people.  I am not explaining that well.  It was a place frequented by local people.  I kept referring to farmers as people of the earth.  Meaning--earthy, hard working. Again, not doing this justice.  With more time I could describe the feel of the place and the people that frequented it.
Anyways, we were seated.  Debora ordered this appetizer and then we sampled pizza.  I think this was the pizza.  I think, my favorite meal, of the trip.  Perfection.
The restaurant was too bright inside and sparsely decorated.  The focus was on the food.  My first glass of wine was pure crap.  Agnese kept telling me that people do not drink red wine in the summer.  My reply was that I didn't care.  I prefer red wine, always.  In this case, though, I returned to prosecco as beer was no longer an option either.  Too filling.
Finally, we stopped eating, drinking and Francesca gave us a ride home.  There was a promise of meeting in the a.m. for a 6 mile run.  Thankfully, I had drank a bunch of water throughout that day to ensure a healthy pace. 
Debora tried to convince us to have an after dinner drink.  We declined and the next day, I was extremely grateful for that decision.  Waking up at 6:30 to run at the beach would have been unpleasant is all I am saying.
Sunday showed me another typical Italian meal, conversation and ample drink.  I did manage to imbibe a few cups of coffee, too.  Lovely, lovely day.