November 18, 2021

Rome on a sunny day in November, e sto

I’m on a high. It’s exhausting and exhilarating and oh-so-fulfilling and I don’t think I’m the only one. The general energy in the air is that we’re all a little excitable these days. In Rome, things have pretty much all opened back up- there are dinners and parties and social things and art openings and beauty is kinda, well, it’s everywhere. There is definitely not a 10pm curfew.

Today I was feeling overwhelmed after a beautiful tour and so I took myself on a walk through the city center and came across this very perfect and very 2021 scene.

See that white tent? It’s a rapid Covid testing center and they’re all over town, blending in with the scenery just like the masks and hand sanitizer and all the other tiny tokens of late-pandemic life.

I’m holding onto all the details and trying to decide if it’s time to write a book (probs yes) or to just stay present and soak in all the little nuances of life, day after day, hour after hour. Probably a combo of both.

As an aside: After over a year with almost zero tour-guide work I’ve been steadily starting to reincorporate it and lemme tell ya, it’s so magical remembering what the city was like last year and it might’ve been strange but it was also so utterly whimsical and as I recount it to clients who only know what they saw on the news, I can’t help but feel showered in gratitude.

What a privilege to have gotten to live in this city, during these times, what a damn privilege.