Rome Then and Now

The devastation of lockups

A few days ago, I sat outside a bar in Via Sicilia, the heart of the Rome office and embassy district. I was with a member of the other Old Geezer’s family and was ruminating that I worked for two decades just on the other side of the street.

That was not surprising. Notably, apart from the bar we were in, every commercial outlet had changed. The big ministerial jobs and their agencies were still there, like ISTAT, the Italian equivalent of the ONS. But gone were the trendy eateries, bars, snugs, and so on, where we used to flock during lunch breaks. Gone were the Alimentari - an old Italian general food store type. Alimentari had long been dying out before 2020. Still, those in the centre of Rome were important because the elderly - the few permanent residents left in the district - depended on them, especially since they made home deliveries. Commercial concerns, yes, but with a social function.

There are no canals in Via Sicilia, but this situation has reached dramatic proportions in…