when in rome...

Today was a very good day. We arrived in Rome yesterday with enough time for a late dinner of pasta and a walk around the area where our hotel is. Today we left the hotel around 7:30 in the morning and just arrived back at midnight. We spent the morning and afternoon visiting consumer homes in Italy (our driver was absolutely crazy, but more about that later) with a break for lunch in what our local translators described as the most authentic part of Rome. It is where the true Romans live and to be considered a true Roman your family must have lived there for a minimum of 7 generations. After our last consumer visit, we had our driver drop us off in the middle of the city where we took off exploring, walking literally from one side of the city to the other, taking in as much as possible. We covered a LOT of ground and ended the evening by meeting up with some of our Rome P&G colleagues as "Gusto Pizzeria" which is known to be the most authentic pizza in Rome. We then followed dinner with espresso (one of my favorite Italian traditions) and then re-visited a few places to see them lit up at night. I have a lot of photos to catch up on sharing, including more from Germany, but it's nearly 2:00am and I still have work to finish before getting a few hours of sleep before meetings in the morning. Here are a few in the meantime from Rome today. Rome is absolutely worth the loss of sleep.