What’s your idea of romance and Rome?
What’s your idea of romance and Rome? Colorado resident and former Rome resident Anne Streeter joins me in a conversation about the city’s beauty that tugs on our heartstrings.
What’s your idea of romance and Rome? Colorado resident and former Rome resident Anne Streeter joins me in a conversation about the city’s beauty that tugs on our heartstrings.
I approached the group lounging outside the pub undecided if I had a bigger thirst for beer or human contact. I proceeded to get the first elbow bump of my life from my Belfast buddy, Patrick O’Byrne, and my Rome friend, Sergio Serra. A barman wrote “14” on my hand, and I waited until my […]
We take a break from our regularly scheduled update on the biggest human tragedy of our lives to bring you something almost as awful. My acting career. If you’ve followed my blog, you know I developed a side career as a film extra. I had a good 2018-19. I played an American cardinal in “The […]
The sidewalk cafes tempt you like the Sirens from a nearby shore. You can feel the sun’s warmth on your balcony but you can’t feel the sea. The last time you did the Italian double-cheek kiss was with your cat. Welcome to Porto Quarantina. Life in Italian lockdown is harder than most places. We live […]
The only beneficiaries of the coronavirus quarantine are cats. Think about it. They have all these laps to sit on and sleep on all day. Lots of hands to pet and stroke them. Someone is always there with thumbs. Owners can open a can of catfood at the first meow. The coronavirus turned them from […]
I went to bed Monday night feeling pretty good about my adopted country. Italy, the epicenter of this vicious coronavirus, showed signs of recovery. The percentage of new cases had dropped four straight days and in a week had been cut in half. The percentage of daily deaths had dropped three straight days. I woke […]
Sergio Serra rents out holiday houses around Rome. He has a wife and a 3-year-old daughter. Underneath all the death, the overflowing hospitals, the empty streets and the fear as the coronavirus cuts its swath through Italy, Sergio is one of many stories that doesn’t get told. “My income,” he said, “is completely zero.” Unlike […]
Tuesday I had to make the risky move of traveling across Rome to a clinic using public transportation. As Italy becomes the western world’s most paralyzed country courtesy of the Coronavirus, I felt like the guy sneaking out of his shelter in a scene from “Night of the Living Dead.” My girlfriend, a third-generation Roman […]
Hello from Quarantine Centrale. Here in Italy we have become Europe’s red-headed, deformed stepchild. We are shunned, ridiculed and home bound. The Coronavirus has turned all 60 million of us into passengers on one giant cruise ship. We’re sitting motionless with no port accepting our wretched, damned souls. I myself am quarantined. Yes, it happened […]
FIUMICINO, Italy — I love the parlor game: Who would you like to be at any point in history? Mine’s easy. I would be part of the aristocracy during the Roman Empire. What would your life be like? Let’s see. You go to your private thermal bath and sit in an outdoor Jacuzzi set at […]
I’m often asked if I’d ever live anywhere in Italy besides Rome. I know what they’re getting at. If it’s a woman, she read “Under the Tuscan Sun” and thinks life in rural Italy is all Italian poetry and glasses of Chianti in gardens. If it’s a man, they hated Rome’s filth and have a […]
Living in Rome is like living in a big city with a small town right across the street. Can’t believe you can get a small-town feel from a city of 2.8 million people who drive like they’re escaping a coming earthquake? Just walk down a street. In fact, walk down many of them. Walk down […]