Hola, Que Tal

The Spanish Steps under Guard

Que tal?  Nada.  The Spanish Steps were as empty as the streets. You can see all empty street evidence on flickr.  I feel there is not much to report on other than repeating each day's sameness. But the weather is fabulously warm and sunny. Rome is beautiful. 

What I would like to comment on is the complete lack of assistance from the US Embassy in Rome. Nothing is posted to help US citizens who are in Italy other than warnings about not going to Italy. For specific Covid-19 help you are linked to an Italian site, which of course is only offered in Italian.  To acquire the self-declaration document that we need to have when leaving the apartment, we used an Italian site and then translated it into English using Google Translate.  While I read the translation on my phone, Wayne filled in the required information of the Italian copy on his iPad.  We were advised to have the document in Italian to enable the police to read it.  Why are these instructions not on the Embassy site?  Why is the translated document not there? Why when I called for assistance a week ago was I told, "there is nothing we can do for you."  The office staff was greatly reduced on that call date, March 11.  The ambassador is a big time GOP contributor and a fundraising leader for Trump's 2016 campaign.  It's time the US started appointing ambassadors based on competency and not donations to either party.   A very few photos at flickr.