Alive and Very Healthy in Rome

Anthony LoPinto

Last week my family took a pass on the traditional Thanksgiving meal for the opportunity to spend a week in Rome. The City is always glorious with some of the most amazing historical sights and a people who are so welcoming and fun to be around. Of course the food is also off the charts. You really can’t go wrong no matter where you break bread and uncork a bottle of chianti. But for me the most extraordinary experience was to focus on the health of the retail scene in Rome. All of the major (and minor) shopping districts and streets were bustling from 10am until late into the evening. Granted, Italy now celebrates Black Friday with great discounts so that surely increased the crowds, but I was focused on the store fronts. I found a couple of pop-ups, but for the most part, there were no “da affittare” (for rent) signs in Italian. This was in stark contrast to the carnage on the street retail centers on New York’s Madison Avenue and other high end, and lower end locations. I’m afraid I cannot reconcile what I found in Rome with the NY scene, but it sure was troubling.