ROME — As Italy opens up to its residents, Europe and eventually the rest of the world, businesses in Rome are trying to figure out how to navigate an Eternal City without the daily traffic of tourists and full offices. The centro storico, Rome’s historic center, has long relied on tourism to support many of its restaurant and food services.
An employee of RetroBottega, a restaurant, wine bar and pasta lab, waits for patrons. “We reached out to the community that wasn’t able [or didn’t want] to shop in the supermarket, that wanted quality,” says RetroBottega’s Lo Iudice. Reconfiguring into RetroDelivery, a CSA-structured produce delivery service, RetroBottega reached out to local residents to offer fresh produce delivery via WhatsApp.
During the lockdown, while the closed-to-public cafe organized coffee deliveries, the bakery kept its doors open and provided home deliveries of such items as homemade yeast and pizza dough.“Bread has a social weight; we have to provide it,” explains baker PierLuigi Roscioli. In fact, he personally delivered bread to his patrons, which inspired the community and showed that there was some normalcy in a surreal situation.
A return to dining All’aperto is one of every Romans favorite expressions. We love eating outside, but not every restaurant has that possibility, and the new social distancing regulations and personal hesitations make indoor dining an afterthought, at best. Instead of heading inside, customers of Pizzeria Remo a Testaccio dine alfresco. “Unfortunately, most people come to the pizzeria as a group of friends and family, and now would have to sit distanced from each other. Are they going to tell jokes using WhatsApp?” asks partner Antonio Amato.
“We are a tradition. A line will return and it’s our responsibility to keep it organized,” Giolitti says. But Giolitti notes that as a heritage establishment that owns its space, the gelateria is luckier than most other businesses that are struggling to pay rents and salaries.[How to shop and cook like a local in Rome]
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