ideas for first night in Rome

Are you arriving from California, or will you be coming in from someplace else in Europe or Italy?

Assuming your are exhausted and jetlagged, flying in from CA, have a shower but do not lie down. Go for a walk to explore the neighborhood. (Malta Keyhole, Santa Sabina.) Take a bus to the Centro Storico for dinner about 20:00 (no good comes of eating in Rome earlier than that), and allow yourself to sleep after your "early" Roman dinner. You should be more-or-less adapted to local time by the AM.

Hey Michael Yes ill be coming from California on Oct.21st

You're going to be exhausted unless you're flying business class and have a sleeping pill! Listen to the advice from the poster above, and check into the hotel and don't lie down! Then just go see a site near your hotel, maybe Pantheon or something that doesn't need a lot of "brain work," eat dinner and go to bed at 9pm, then start the real trip the next day.

The neighborhood around the Pantheon also has some good restaurants to eat in. Grab a bite and head for the bed early.
Then wake up and hit the road.

If you get in at 4pm you'll get to your hotel about 6 or 7pm Get settled go to dinner and you'll be exhausted. Go to bed around 10 and then wake up at 1AM because after coming from the West Coast you'll be completely off. Read a book and fall asleep at 4am and wake up at 9 and be all groggy. At least that's my experience! It takes me a good five days to adjust from the big time change going from the West Coast. If you avoid sleeping on the plane it helps but what else can you do on that long flight?

A short, leisurely walk after dinner would probably help you get some fresh air and a little exercise. The Aventine area, Trastevere, or the Piazza Navona/Pantheon/Campo dei Fiori areas would be my favorites.