I'm melting

Nine degrees Celsius when we left Stanstead at 8.40 this morning. 29C when we landed in Ciampino a couple of hours later! Wonderful views to the right of St Peter's Square and the Colosseum as we flew in over Rome that brought back happy memories of a long weekend we had spent here a couple of years earlier.

No problem with the detectors safely stored amongst cushioning clothes in the two suitcases apart from Ryan Air's creative charging system. I was comforted, however, to be in possession of the official invitation from the University of Michigan in English and Italian! It was a relief to see both bags among the first dozen on the carousel.

We were early and Anna and Valentina were caught up in holiday traffic but soon we were in their car heading for Frascati and chatting freely to these two typically lovely Italian ladies. As it will be the first day on site this year for everyone I get a bit of a lie in as Valentina will not be picking me up till 9.30 tomorrow.

The hotel is very pleasant and a much better standard of accommodation than most archaeologists would expect on the average dig I'm sure. Certainly the simple pasta and 'speck' lunch they rustled up for us when we arrived was excellent.




We braved the heat and hill to get our first view of Frascati town. Above is a view of the Piazza Roma and the Villa Aldobrandini. I'm sure Helen is going to enjoy exploring it in more detail and hopefully I can find the time too but today I must admit I took more pleasure in returning to our room to find that they had got the air conditioning working! We had a quick siesta on the cool bed!

Well the GMP detector is assembled and working and the rucksack packed with all the usual accessories and so as the sun heads downwards over our distant view of Rome I had better let Helen get on the computer before we go for dinner. The free Wi-Fi is a real bonus.