I met up with sister-in-law Kim Shaw who had a rough first day in Rome – no phone, no cell. She couldn’t connect with me or with her AirBnb host. When we finally got together around 6 pm she was dogeared. A little Rosso di Montalcino, Da Bucatino’s famous carciofa alla piastra and pasta amatriciana, a walk along the Tiber and through the Jewish Ghetto, a cappuccino (and for me amaro averne) at Marenaga’s, and Kimmie had a bit more skip in her step.
Charlie’s night ended at 1 am when he returned from a dinner party with 15 other students at his friends Roberto and Richardo’s apartment. He took the metro to Flaminio around 8 pm and shared a taxi home with another girl at 12:30 pm. He said dinner was pasta and sushi with English and Italian mixed in. Apparently the penthouse apartment (Via Sebastiano Conca, 13, Roma) is palatial on the top floor overlooking all of Rome. He and Roberto were the only St. Stephen’s freshman, so he had a chance to mingle with upperclassmen and experience another element of Rome, high society – a poetic contrast with his life in Testaccio.