Oct 18, 2021
50 years ago I lived for three years in Rome as a teenager. It was a place where I came of age and had a great deal of freedom with a big Triumph 750cc motorcycle. Rome was my playground.
Today it feels very familiar and like coming home. I am able to speak Italian and connect with the people. The basic heart and rhythm of the city is still the same but also much has changed. Brenda had visited Rome 40 years ago and together we saw a great many differences since we were last here. It used to be that you could just walk into the Forum or Colosseum without paying for it. Now everything is closed off and you have to order tickets on-line or endure South Asian hawkers trying to sell you tours with immediate access.
But many of the parts of the city are just as they used to be and today we walked all over town and enjoyed seeing the old familiar sights. But seeing where I used to drink beer in the German Beer Gardens which is now a Gucci store made me feel like an ancient Roman from the past.
