Primo giornato in Roma

The morning finally came when we awoke sluggy headed to face our first day in-country - conveniently in a lovely hotel in Rome we've stayed out a few times. 9Hotel Cesari; a very old hotel smack dab in the middle of the Centro Storico, walkable in minutes to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo Fiori, Fontana di Trevi.

Very much an on purpose action as sort of way to float down comfortably from the fog of jet lag before we head south to San Cataldo/Lecce and the sea.

If you read any snippets from my previous blog, pre pandemic Becoming Roman you'll know I like lists, so here you go. What seems different than 2019 we we did a few months in Rome (gawd, I love remote working) in the most interesting and beautiful city in the world?

Chage, in the Eternal City? It happens.

1. Ristoranti and cafe life. We like coffee and of course that was our first goal, so we headed down a few blocks to a really authentic, high volume coffee bar, one of the first really great cups of coffee I had in my past travels. A morning here would usually see countless Romanos packed shoulder to shoulder at the bar pounding down their doppio espresso and cornetto before heading off to work. A typical and hearty start to any morning Today the bar was practically empty with a pretty large outdoor seating area with waiters hustling like it was the end of days upon us. The old days was likely better for business with a solid system in place to push through the customers: stand in line, order and pay and get a ticket, shoulder into a space standing at the bar and present your ticket, almost instantly get your coffee and cornetto, eat in the cacophony of espresso fueled Italians planning their day and then off into the world with you. Boom, Boom, Boom. The majesty that is espresso

Today it was the more relaxed, take an empty table seat and wait for a server to find you, order then in time receive your drink and food and meander over it while people watching.

Somewhat better experience for the customer, but no so much throughput for the business owner and far harder work for the staff - reflected in the bit of a rise in prices. Our server, after seeing my face all at the announcement that they had no more cornetti left (it WAS after 10:30am), somehow found me the last cornetto in the shop. Grazie mille il mio amico!

Off we went, properly fueled, our sole goal was to walk off the morning, see the Pantheon for the umpteenth time, and wander the city till lunch.

And so we did, the Pantheon had a ginormous line snaking all over the piazza Rotundo so we blew off waiting to go inside. However, we WERE rewarded with miraculous second sunrise over the dome (see pictures below.)

Around the old city we walked with no purpose other than to enjoy what was left the lovely Autumn morning, We found some new to us streets and architectural sights:. The Italian Parliament building showing the first signs of increased security for the G10 summit happening in about a month. Lots of super bad looking commando walking the street, making one instantly sit up a bit straighter and look respectable. Rome has always felt safe to us, 24 hours a day, but this was different.

An odd contrast as we sat at our table outside for lunch. First two commandos walk by looking grim and deadly, no-nonsence young bad-asses for sure. Pretty much central casting for any movie needing a commando presence. Roman legionnaires for a modern era. 3 minuti later two carabinieri troll past. Older, out of shape,chatting policemen, looking relaxed on their way to pranzo and neither looking like they had ever missed a meal at their nonna's. At my advanced age I don't anticipate doing anything to bring on a chase down thee narrow streets, but if I do, I know which department I want chasing me.

That slice o people watching brings me to another bullet point in change in Roma:

2. Streets filled with people like never before, especially in the start of the low season. Covid having changed the rules of ristoranti to outside seating only has filled every inch of the centro storico streets with outside cafe dining. Lovely for me, as I like nothing better than to sit and eat outside - especially when the weather is so fair. But the narrow streets seem narrower and a whole lot of touristi not wearing masks is a bit concerning. This is the first time in 20 months I've been in close proximity strangers ad I'm not sure I like it much. But we leave in two day, not to return till winter has already made a footprint. It should be different then too.

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A few photos from day one: The morning view from our hotel window of the brilliant sunshine on a few rooftop gardens. I want one so bad.