We're here and we're sweating...

Arrived yesterday, Saturday, in Roma around 11 a.m., after a long, pleasantly boring plane ride. I scored a center section of seats to myself so I wallowed horizontally throughout the flight, to the barely hidden disgust of my fellow, upright passengers. I have said it before and I will say it again: melatonin is my new best friend. Pop a 1 mg pill after the first plane meal, and you slowly slide into a mellow sleep for the length of the flight (it is not sleeping pill sleep, but that is ok with me). I waited in the hotel for an hour for Leslie...as he was late, gave up on him and headed out and down the nearby Spanish Steps, where I suddenly stumbled on a sweating, heaving Leslie hauling his bags up the numerous Spanish Steps. I was bleary eyed, but we pushed onward to stumble around the neighborhood, and onto the Pantheon (probably my favorite old building...the one with the hole in the roof), and onward to drinks at the Piazza Navona (where it was so hot, the people watching was a little off...the masses were huddled whereever a puddle of shade could be found...so the Piazza, cooking under the sun, mostly was bare). We wandered up to the Piazza di Populo for more drinks before I commanded that we had to eat and we did, at a perfectly mediocre restaurant near the hotel (my pasta fagiola (sp?) was executed brilliantly however, with a slight vinegary taste). I finally had to call it quits because my eyes kept involuntarily shutting, and I still had the hill home to climb. Which I did, barely. I left Leslie to pay the bill, and as I feared, he got lost on the way home (even though I made him stick the hotel card with its address and a little map on the back in his pocket before we left for this very reason). He eventually showed up. And I soon collapsed. Slept through the night to awake only occasionally to wonder why our little air conditioner (R2D4) was not able to keep my back dry. The Europeans, I find, settle for a lot less in the way of physical comforts than Americans do. Onward to some old stuff this morning, rested and well fed (corn flakes and Nutella for breakfast).