Ruling the Roman Empire

The past few days have been purely exhausting and quite maddening at times. As expected there is virtually no sense of semblance shooting a documentary deep inside the thick walls of Rome. There's simply too many factors that can't be controlled. Sometimes it's been a no-holds bar, geurilla-style, shoot from the hip, kind of assignment. Other times there's direction and a methodology but all that washes away when fickle weather patterns turn blue skies to black and/or herds of tourists interrupt a shooting scene. Yellow caution tape is not allowed and curious on-lookers are a force to be reckoned with. This is definitely a learning experience especially when navigating ancient grid-less streets of Rome, both on foot and in a car.

Let me remind you that the cobblestone streets of Rome were built hundreds of years ago, long before man invented cars - at a time when only a horse and carriage were used. But, today, drivers are packed and parked like sardines up and down narrow one-way labrynths with no room for error. Restaurant tables spill onto craggy sidewalks within inches of a car bumpers and blaring headlights. Homeless dogs and cats roam graffiti-marked alleyways picking at empty leftovers and a free handout. None of the shops carry marquis so there's no way of knowing what they sell until you crack open a heavy wooden door and peer inside. Retail owners are kind and courteous but patience is a virtue exercised regularly and not because of the language barrier but because the pace of this country is far more laid-back than us. Again, the exception being driving.

Tomorrow brings more of the same with little time to rest, relax and retire for a massage or blog again. Instead of just being a travel writer and experiencing the best in food and culture and play, I'm knee deep in the politics and pressures of working 12-hour days in one of the oldest cities in the world. That fact is both mind-blowing and challenging at the same time.