Reopening-- Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia...

A Hajj gets much more crowded than a Trump rally-- or inauguration

I lived abroad for 7 years and I'm a "member" of the century club (meaning I've been to over 100 countries). When I was still in my twenties and people asked me to name my favorite countries, it would always be Afghanistan, Morocco, Nepal and Ceylon (since re-named Sri Lanka). Over the years the only constant has been Morocco. There's too much air pollution in Kathmandu to go back; too much violence in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka... well, I would go back for a 4th times but... but my favorites now would have to be Italy, France, Spain, Thailand, Bali, Morocco.

Two of my traveling buddies, Roland and David, keep asking when we can go out on the road again and where. For me, it's going to be not for a long time until I even leave my house for more than a hike in the hills behind it and a weekly trip-- in my beekeepers outfit-- to the grocery store. I don't see an airplane ride in my immediate future. But... I sure am hankering for the Monto neighborhood behind the Forum where Roland and I rented a two bedroom-two bathroom apartment in the Palazzo del Grillo last we were in Rome, a week for what it would cost for a night in an equivalent hotel. (As I wrote at my travel blog 10 years ago, we didn't have the Frette sheets or the fancy towels but with what you save, you can afford to buy them and take them home! And after a few days you start to feel like you're part of the neighborhood and that you're living a normal life, not just a time and space cut-out from reality.

Italy was badly hit by the pandemic. The country had 238,720 confirmed cases (9th worse in the world), 34,657 deaths (4th worst after the U.S., Brazil and the U.K.) and 3,948 cases per million, in the population (32nd worst in the world and about the same as Texas, except Texas is just at the beginning of its battle with the pandemic and Italy is pretty much finished).

Erica Firpo lives in Rome and writes for the Washington Post. Over the weekend she made the point that Rome is ready for visitors again but that the restaurants look different. "As Italy opens up to its residents, Europe and eventually the rest of the world," she wrote, "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. Opening doors again isn’t easy; restaurants are experiencing a new atmosphere thanks to changed personalities and limited tourism. Some are investing in invigorating the local community, while others are simply trying to move forward. As Rome slowly acquaints itself with the city’s new landscape, these restaurants, cafes and markets are doing their best to evolve in the city’s new landscape.

Community first

RetroBottega one of the city’s innovators for its focus on materie prime (locally sourced, raw and organic fruit and vegetables), closed its restaurant, wine bar and pasta lab along with the rest of the country on March 8. Owners Giuseppe Lo Iudice and Alessandro Miocchi quickly pivoted to support the team that supports them, i.e. its staff and its farmers, and to support the historic center’s community.

“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.

It wasn’t easy at first, but the neighborhood quickly caught on and loved the personalized grocery service with the RetroBottega vibe. Miocchi, the pasta brain, expanded the repertoire to include fresh bread, and now RetroDelivery delivers gourmet products, meat, fish, and freshly made pasta and breads thanks to a collaboration with Roscioli, as well as a local butcher and local fish vendor.

The Roscioli family, four generations of bakers, is one of the cornerstone’s of the Campo de’ Fiori neighborhood. Roscioli is now a local empire with a coffee shop, bakery and restaurant/gourmet delicatessen.

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.

Aligning with RetroBottega was a natural fit for Roscioli, as both are dedicated to providing top-quality products and investing and supporting the local community by continuing to cater, in all senses of the word, to its needs.

“We are rooted in this neighborhood; we can’t abandon it. We grew up here. It was unfathomable to think that we wouldn’t stay open. For us, it’s not about economics, but it’s a duty to our community,” says PierLuigi.

A return to dining

All’aperto (alfresco dining) 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.

RetroBottega reopened its restaurant, wine bar and pasta lab but not quite as it was before. Lo Iudice and Miocchi refocused their menu by creating pizzas-- inventive and made with prime materie and antipasti. Roscioli Salumeria, the brothers’ tiny restaurant, restructured its tables and, like everyone else, requires advance reservations.

It's not an ideal situation, and not helped by the fact that Romans are not as active as tourists in dining out. To some, this is the perfect time to experience restaurants whose wait lists are weeks long, but to restaurant owners, the next few months are a precarious tight rope.

One establishment that intensely feels the effects of the pandemic’s full stop is Pizzeria Remo a Testaccio, an inexpensive, cult-favorite pizzeria in the Testaccio neighborhood. Right now, the usually busy pizzeria is quiet. Regular clients are not interested in sitting inside, whether scared of being too close or offset by the summer heat, and for those that potentially want to return, they are dissuaded by social distancing settings that make dining a lot less fun.

“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.

Roman constants

Rome is not Rome without gelato, and during the lockdown, many gelaterie teamed up with delivery services to provide the treat to homes all over the city. Giolitti, the 120-year-old gelateria best known for its 57 flavors as well as its crowds, was this journalist’s go-to delivery for cioccolato fondente (dark chocolate) during the lockdown.

Closing its doors completely was not an option, describes Nazareno Giolitti.

“Giolitti has only been closed only a half-day when my grandfather passed away and another half-day when my father passed away. Why? Because my grandparents always said we are public service. Our feelings come second to that of the people,” he says. Giolitti maintained its staff by alternately hours, and immediately focused on at home gelato delivery.

When Italy slowly opened, Giolitti was prepared with take away coffee drinks, pastries and gelato.

“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.

Giolitti is now fully reopened, and the line has returned.

Traditional cafes are the staple of any Italian city. They are where we meet and greet in the morning for a quick chat and fast counter service. Although bars and cafes have been open for nearly two months, the normal routine is nothing like before. Along with social distancing protocols, which reduce the amount of people at the counter, Rome updated business hours to three time slots during May and June, where non-food-related shops (like clothing) open at 11 a.m., which means less morning traffic from incoming staff.

Bar del Cappuccino, a beloved hole-in-the wall on Via Arenula, is waiting for the foot traffic to return, like every other bar in the city center.

“Our faithful clientele has returned. And since tourists aren’t traveling, we are reaching out to local businesses,” says owner Adriano Santoro, who keeps in touch with the local community with Facebook posts and offering home delivery as well as takeaway service. “We’re all waiting to see how this moves forward.”

It sounds she could be describing Los Feliz, the neighborhood in Los Angeles where I live and where things are slowly, in some cases fitfully, starting to reopen. I haven't even thought about going back to a restaurant myself and have a feeling it may be a very long time before I do. Spain, which was also devastated by the pandemic is also starting to reopen for tourists. Overall, it was the 6th worst-hit in terms of overall cases (293,584) and 6th worse in terms of deaths (28,324). There have been cases 6,279 per million, not as bad as the U.S. (7,210) but about the same as Alabama (6,123), which is spiking, while Spain is finishing up. Saturday Spain reported a diminishing 363 new cases, while Alabama reported a rising 547. Yesterday Spain ended its 3 months-long state of emergency "allowing in tourists from most of Europe," reported The Post, but warning that hygiene measures must be followed to avoid a second wave... The move will mean Spaniards can move around the country as normal and will allow some relief for the country’s decimated tourism industry. Tourists from Britain, who make up the largest proportion of visitors to Spain each year, will also be allowed to enter without a 14-day quarantine, Foreign Affairs Minister Arancha González Laya told the BBC. However, some on holiday may be put off by having to isolate for two weeks when they return to Britain, in line with current regulations. González Laya urged Britain to implement reciprocal measures. Spain will begin to welcome visitors from outside the European Union from July 1, depending on the level of outbreak in their home countries." (I think that means they will not be allowing U.S. visitors.

The Gulf States are all among the worst hit in the world, by any metric. These are the countries listed by cases per million and with their total cases in parentheses:

• Qatar- 31,485 cases per million, worst in the entire world (88,403 total cases)
• Bahrain- 13,187 (22,407)
• Kuwait- 9,439 (40,291)
• Oman- 6,091 (31,076)
• UAE- 4,582 (45,303)
• Saudi Arabia- 4,627 (161,005)
• Iran- 2,472 (207,525)
• Iraq- 813 (32,676)

1,267 Saudis have died. I've never been there and it isn't high up on my bucket-list since it isn't hospitable to non-Muslim tourists. But despite a seriously soaring case load, they're in the process of also reopening. Again, The Post reporting. As of yesterday curfews and other restrictions imposed to fight the pandemic, were ended after 73 days of lockdown. This is insane because their infection rate is rising and there is no metric that suggests they should be reopening.

The Post's Paul Schemm reported that "Travel to and from the country remains banned, as do gatherings of more than 50 people. Mask use will continue to be mandatory outside... Sports facilities have also been reopened, but there are strict social distancing and hygiene protocols meant to prevent the further spread of the virus. Taxi rides for instance will be permitted, but payment must be by credit card rather than cash. The 1,500 mosques in the city of Mecca, the focus of an annual pilgrimage by more than 2 million Muslims a year, also reopened on Sunday. Mosques elsewhere in the country had reopened last month. Authorities have not yet announced if the annual Hajj pilgrimage set for the end of July will go forward as normal, but it is widely expected to either be canceled or severely curtailed in numbers."

Allowing the Hajj-- if people came (2.5 million did last year)-- would have been the biggest super-spreader of the virus on earth. Today the government announced a "very limited number of pilgrims"-- and just people already living in Saudi Arabia-- will be participating. (Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia had already announced that their citizens would not be going on the Hajj this year.) The Saudis have been worried about riling up the psycho extremists (their version of the Trumpist base) for whom religion trumps health concerns. There are more than 7,400,000 foreign workers, many just one small step up from slaves, living in Saudi Arabia, the majority from India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Pakistan and other poor South Asian countries. Most live in horribly overcrowded quarters and in ideal conditions for the virus to spread. The Saudis will put together a quota system allowing only certain numbers from each nationality to take part.