Yay for Sleep, Boo to Volcanoes

Gosh, I love sleep. Why it insists on being such trouble for me, I wish I knew. I slept til 11:30 this morning and it felt sooo good...mmm.

You know what I don't love? Volcanos that decide to erupt mere days before my family is coming to visit me and force flights to be cancelled. Thanks, Mother Nature. Way to be cool. NOT.

It's still a little up in the air as to whether or not they'll be able to make it, but seeing as how the ash is still a LOT up in the air, that possibility is looking mighty dim. Ah well, best-laid plans, as they say.

I met up with Alaina for lunch--well, her lunch, my breakfast--at Trattoria da Rocco, a well-known place inside the San' Ambrogio market that we've been trying to go to for ages but schedule conflicts have gotten in the way. But today, one of the few free Fridays we have left, was the perfect opportunity! It's a really cute place open to the rest of the indoor market, and definitely had the local feel. And absolutely amazing prices!

I ordered this lovely concoction:

Panzanella di farro

Panzanella is a typical Italian summer salad, usually made with big chunks of bread and tossed with capers, tomato, basil, cucumber and red onion in olive oil + vinegar (usually red wine, I believe). It's actually one of my favorite salads--my mom and I got the recipe out of a Weight Watchers cookbook and fell completely in love! [Those cookbooks have, by the way, some seriously delicious recipes - don't make snap judgements about it being "tasteless diet food" until you've tried their turkey chili recipes!] Anyway, this was made with spelt (farro) grains instead of bread and I really enjoyed it! Light and tasty. Not a bad breakfast/lunch! Could have used a few more tomato/cuke chunks, though. 

For dessert, Alaina and I split a cup of fruit salad- macedonia di frutta, because it sounded so good:

A bit uninspired in terms of the fruit used, but I rarely meet a fruit I don't like, and we happily gobbled this up.

I returned home to functional Internet-it was out all day yesterday and was driving me nuts! I still have a paper and presentation to work on, so I was getting a little nervous. Now I'm just worried that my procrastination skills will overcome my hard-working student skills...an eternal battle, truly.

Did a bit of shopping later - I had to buy a bathing suit for tomorrow because API is taking us to a thermal water pool (basically a naturally formed spa) in Siena!! On Sunday we will be in Perugia for a wine tasting. What a weekend! Before I left home, I was given strict orders to visit Siena by my neurologist, and who am I to go against doctor's orders? I will probably be a bit bogged down with homework on Sunday, but expect an update on Monday (given the internet behaves, which is far from probable...)

So, sorry for the lack of pictures today, but I promise to make it up to you this weekend - I just hope Frida is in a good mood!

~Namaste~