Where's Christmas?

What's happened to the Christmas spending binge?

You have never seen the shops of Rome so empty, at least away from the main historical centre.

The final Saturday before Christmas felt like Boxing Day in terms of the number of people milling around.

Things seem so desperate for the department stores that we were literally taken in hand by the Clarins sales lady in the Rinascente and begged to buy some perfume. We accepted the free samples and said we might come back.

What are doing well are the book shops and the 'pile them high' bargain stores, even the 99 cent shop was buzzing.

Perhaps it is due to the holidays falling mid week, as the sensation is that most people have taken a 'mega ponte' and cleared off for 10 days.

Our barometer of Christmas is, of course, the annual appearance of the zampogne musicians from Abruzzo/Molise.

Checking out this blog from a year ago, we registered their presence from the 24 November.

This year we saw a lone player in Via Alessandria at 7pm on Saturday 22 December. All very low key.