Don't know if I really rate "brilliant"... ; )

I'm glad you're liking the rendition of Rome here - I'm really scratching hard to get my memories of the city stirred up for this story because I've only been there once, and didn't actually like it all that much. Buf, I figure, it's gotta be impressive to Buffy.

And yeah, pretty much the whole point of this chapter was getting to her memory of that last, sad night in the basement. Poor girl, she's really determined to do things right this time...