buongiorno

Hello loved ones,

I would love to write and write and write about my miniadventures and hiccups along the way thus far, but Mirella (Pams dads first cousins wife) is waiting for me to have lunch. And I already skipped breakfast, and I already skipped meeting the maid who apparently wants to meet me and already knows Savta. Now dont worry, I wast being rude or neglectful... on purpose. But I woke up a bit after noon.

But in brief: Yesterday I look a long walk around Dusseldorf, Germany. I was looking for Old Town, because Sam looked it up and its supposed to be the best part of the city. However the roads are very loopy and too small to get their name on the map (plus my awful sense of direction was working against me). I did stumble upon a beautiful park with lots of shade, so I walked around there and sat to stop from sweating so much for a while which was nice. It was quite an event getting back to the airport because I couldnt figure out how to buy a ticket... again, but this time the nice German gentleman trying to assist me didnt speak any english. It was pretty funny, and I eventually got back to the airport, where I wished the air conditioning was stronger. I was able to get a nap in before leaving for Rome.

Then Carlo (Mirellas husband) picked me up from the airport after I finally got my bag. His English is probably perfect but his accent is like each word has been dipped in molasses, and they stick together to form new sweeet ItalianEnglish words that dont actually exist in either of our native languages. This lead to him telling me that Mirella has been retired for 5 years, and then me asking a few minutes later if Mirella was still working. But besides that I smiled and agreed with him on details about the family and the city.

When I got back to their beautiful apartment in the heart of the Capital, Mirella showed me my room and bathroom, and kitchen, where we had a conversation when she convinced me I should go to bed right away because I was too tired. I was then surprised to see a fully set dining room table complete with a delicious vegetarian meal, that Im pretty sure is being converted to lunch right now.

Before I went to sleep I took the coldest shower I could in preparation for a hot and sticky night with no AC. I dozed off 2 pages into a new book, but woke up at 230 feeling suffocated by heat. I went to see if there was another room with AC, I went to see if there were ice cubes, but I was out of luck. I went back to bed with a coolish glass of water, but couldnt sleep. I called Sam and he suggested that I get a damn cloth, because thats what Say (nickname for Sarah, Sams mom) used to do when he had a fever. So I have to thank the Landenwitsches because it worked! I slept from about 1030 to 1230 with a one and a half hour interruption to sweat.

Now its lunch time. Im not sure what Ill do after that because Mirella said it might be too hot for sight seeing (which might mean that I get suckered into doing whatever she thinks is best) and this evening we are going to see their child and grandchild... I think, for dinner. Then Im going to the ballet.

Nadia gets to town late tonight, and Im supposed to meet her at her hotel early tomorrow. So, thats the plan and I just got paged for lunch.

Love you all,
Amy

ps No apostrophes on the Italian key board, or at least none that I could find.