I arrived home from six days in Rome a few weeks ago. This was my first trip abroad in well over a year, and my first time in Rome since October 2019. I was there for a scaled-down Covid-era-appropriate version of the American Academy in Rome’s annual Trustees’ Week.

Some things were extremely different, including getting there and back on Delta. The regulations are now easing, but to enter the country in early June on the airline’s Covid-free flight, I needed three PCR tests—the first one near my apartment in New York, the next at JFK, and the final test on landing in Rome. I will not go into the frustrating time I had with a digital form at JFK or the endless lines both there and at Fiumicino, except to say that I experienced pure joy, beyond the usual pleasure of arriving in Italy, when I got into the car for the trip in to Rome.

I was returning to Rocco Forte’s Hotel de la Ville, next to the Hassler at the top of the Spanish steps, where I had stayed during my last visit. It’s elegant and cozy and I love it—and this time the hotel felt even more welcoming and intimate than it had before. I would like to think that this was because of my outstanding qualities as a guest, but in truth the warm reception I received was more likely due to the reduced number of visitors in general and, above all, the fact that I was arriving from the U.S., the very first visitor in well over a year with this provenance. There were minor glitches during my stay—a housekeeper arriving for turn-down service at 11 PM; the occasional challenges with getting the operator or reception on the phone; the breakfast buffet not being laid out on three of my six mornings, especially as breakfast under the orange-and-white-striped umbrellas in De la Ville’s lovely courtyard remains one of the great pleasures of Rome.

In so many ways, the timing of my trip was ideal. There was never a crowd at the sites I visited with the American Academy—among them, the Colosseum and the Triumphal Route and the Ghetto—or even the Pantheon, where I stopped by with a friend. And shopping, a pastime that I find hard to resist in Rome, offered up seemingly unlimited choices in sizes and styles and a warm welcome everywhere. I added some new addresses to my list of resources: Massimiliano Arriga, on the Piazza Capranica, for thoroughly inventive and not-so-precious jewelry, and Chez Dédé, on Via de Monerrato, which is so much sought out by style-minded shoppers that as a former travel magazine Editor in Chief, I am almost embarrassed to admit that I had not made it there before. I also revisited some of my long-time favorites—Aspesi for casual modern clothing for men and women, on the Via del Babuino; Bomba for couture and ready-made fashions on Via dell’Oca (I Marmottini for children’s clothes and Artisanal Cornucopia for gifts are also worth visiting on this same street); and just off Campo de’Fiori on Via dei Ballauri, Giorgio Moresco-Elisheva for well-priced women’s shoes, even if you will need to pick and choose.

As for restaurants, there was little trouble getting in anywhere, including to a couple of new-to-me places I liked a lot: Pianostrada, run by three women, which my Roman friend, Olivia, a repository of insider information for Rome and beyond, took me to my first night, and Renata e Luisa, a simple place on the Via dei Barbieri where my friend and fellow Trustee, the architect Calvin Tsao (another highly-networked resource for where to go/eat/shop in Rome) organized a dinner for me and a few of our fellow American Academy Trustees. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I had not been to Felice a Testaccio, on Via Mastro Giorgio, which is said to have the best Cacio e Pepe in all the city, but dining on the street in front of the restaurant is something I won’t forget. I did not make it to a few of my usual haunts, particularly Pierluigi and Roscioli, though I did have pizza for lunch at Emma, Roscioli’s sister restaurant—and I plan to be back there before too long.

I needed another rapid Covid nose-swab test to board my flight home to the New York, which I had the day before my departure. I had been advised to arrive at Fiumicino three hours in advance of my flight, which I did, though it was then that I encountered the only real Covid-era mishap of my entire trip—my 1 PM Delta flight had been cancelled and passengers moved to an Alitalia flight that had departed at 10 AM, just as I arrived at the airport. I had not been notified, and my journey back to JFK was via Hartsfield in Atlanta.

Arriving home was a pleasure—it always is, even returning from a place I love as much as Rome. But this time, though a bit more bleary-eyed on arrival than usual, I had a real sense of accomplishment and a new appreciation of moving relatively freely in the world.

Notes from Nancy: Roman Holiday, 2021-style