Joanne's in town part due

Ciao. At noon yesterday I met Joanne on the bridge that crosses the Tiber at the Castel St. Angelo. The bridge has all these statues on it and is very picturesque. We walked over to the area of the Spanish Steps for some window shopping, real shopping and a nice lunch. Then we went to Trevi Fountain so she could throw her coin in, and over to the Pantheon (2) (3) where we stopped in a cafe for a drink and while we were there, it became very very gray in the sky and all of a sudden it was raining. Again!!! But we (along with just about everyone else in the Piazza Rotunda) ran for shelter in the Pantheon, which for me was great because I had always wanted to be in the Pantheon when it was raining. We waited out the rain for awhile under the porch of the temple, but we were getting impatient and when the guy came selling umbrellas for 5 euro, we bought two even though we each had one in our rooms. Nonetheless, we started up again, going to the church of St. Ignatius which is just gorgeous inside and has a tromple l'oueil dome in it, and stopping for gelato at Giolitti's, making our way to Piazza Navona (2) and then sitting on a bench to decide where to have dinner. Around gelato time I wasn't feeling so good and could barely finish my cone (!), which should have been a sign, but I tried to ignore it so we went to dinner at what is reported to be the 'best pizzeria' in all of Rome - Da Baffetto. It was very local, very Italian, and also very hot and stuffy because of the pizza ovens and lack of air conditioning, and I basically became quite nauseous and dizzy and obviously have caught the Centro sickness. Fortunately Joanne was heading to Florence Tuesday morning, so an early night wasn't such a bad thing, but I spent much of Monday night/Tuesday morning in the bathroom. I missed our visit to the ports at Ostia, but I guess I didn't miss that much, considering. I spent the day in my room, in my pajamas, drinking water and reading/writing/napping. At 5 we had a guest speaker here at the Centro who did a very cool technology demonstration on Virtual Reality Rome, and then we had a mini-reception out in the garden. Now it's time to head up for dinner at the Academy and I'm feeling a bit better so I guess I'll get going. It's crazy that I only have a few days left in Rome and still there is so much I wanted to do that I didn't get to, museums I didn't make it to, restaurants I didn't get to eat at, etc. Oh well, like they say, 'Roma, una vita non basta!' (one lifetime isn't enough!) I guess I'll just have to come back!!! Buona sera!