From Rome To Naples: How To Afford Travel
Let’s go backwards with today’s post.
Why can’t we get arugula like this in California? If you know, please tell me.
Bursting with flavor and a sharp bitterness that, instead of turning you off, keeps you coming back for more. So refreshing you can eat it all day, every day. And we do at home, most nights, but it doesn’t taste the same. Not even close.
Slightly off the beaten path, Ivo a Trastevere is a classic pizza and pasta place with tons of character and personality. And incredible food. If you come to Rome, just go.
A not quite 50 euro meal, you could not touch for less than $100 in Los Angeles.
I mention Bar San Calisto a lot.
It was the place that basically introduced us to Rome last year. And we end up there not only for our morning coffee and pastry, but multiple times during the day.
I have trouble putting into words why this place is so special.
Yes, it’s an institution. Yes, it’s inexpensive (1 euro for a cappuccino and 90 cents for a cornetto). Yes, it’s unassuming. Yes, it’s always lively. Yes, the owner is a character.
But you can find lots of places around the world that check these boxes.
A key component of living a fulfilling semi-retired life are third places. Those places, after home and work, where you spend most of your time. Where you engage in your community and can easily find out about a place from locals. Where you can become a local.
But this is an American concept, devised by an American sociologist.
In our conception of things, it’s flawed. Because who wants amazing bars, taverns and coffee shops to be third places? Who wants to spend more time at work? Or even at home?
A great third place becomes one of your primary places.
A place where you can spend a good chunk of your time, popping in and out over the course of your day. Hopefully, you’ll spend more time in these places than at work.
Bar San Calisto is this type of place.
Here’s what they say—so beautifully—about themselves at their website—
The Bar San Calisto is defined by our admirers as “ a real living postcard . A cross-section of colorful Trastevere of which you end up being a part and with which you inevitably fall in love, natives and non.”.
We are in a symbolic neighborhood of a symbolic city and we feel a bit like the Bar symbol of this reality. We have always kept our doors open to all those who frequent the neighborhood without snobbery or winks at the tourism that has invaded our city and our neighborhood over the years.
We offer simple and genuine things with a simple and genuine way without abandoning tradition when it seems outdated.
Long drinks, Peroni in double figures and coffee granita with cream for those who have decided to spend an evening at 0 alcohol content.
You will find a colorful cross-section of Trastevere of which you end up being a part and with which you inevitably fall in love, whether native or not. Among the counter and outside tables, you will find all the archetypes of the Roman bar : frequenting a prestigious neighborhood that mixes without problems with passing tourists, anthological discussions on football, all at popular prices, despite being in the heart of Trastevere.
Hospitality lives. People who care and thoughtfully associate place and atmosphere with everything from the daily life of a local to one-off, fleeting informal social interactions with tourists.
Our coffee shop culture in America isn’t horrible. But it’s nothing like this. Not even close. Our bar culture is better, but still not even close to what happens—naturally—every minute of every hour at Bar San Calisto.
In many ways, it epitomizes semi-retirement.
Coffee shop culture in the US is headed in the wrong direction.
At its beginning, Starbucks hijacked the third place moniker. Now, it’s abandoning it in favor or mobile ordering. Grab and go.
Double park in front and run into the coffee shop has now happens via app ordering.
It’s not good.
Anyway, I love how all of this—everything we discuss in this newsletter—ties together.
Today’s post is free.
Please consider subscribing to read everything and to support, as we’re speeding towards Naples now at 240km/h or 149mph.
For a review of what we’re doing here and what we’ve done, see—
This is post #12 of 20 for the month of February, which is coming to you on a train from Rome to Naples, Italy.
I’m excited to see Italy’s third largest city and one of its most unique and apparently intense urban places. We’re staying in the heart of it all—Naples’ Spanish Quarter (Quartieri Spagnoli)—for five nights.
Today’s Never Retire checklist item—how to afford travel—comes ahead of a full treatment of the subject in March, when I’ll write 20 posts in 31 days, meticulously detailing each of the 20 checklist items.
When I write these posts, I try to make it clear—
I’m of modest means.
I make decent or better money, which, by my definition is considerably less than $100,000 a year. In most months, I bring in between $4,000 and $6,000—give or take, depending on the month.
It’s thanks mainly to Never Retire checklist items #1 through #11 and the ones that follow today’s #12 (especially #20, which will focus on work) that I can do things like work considerably less than 40 hours a week and travel for a month and work less than an hour a day while on the road.
Because I have set myself up with a low cost of living (I’m close to finding the floor) and have found the right kind of work (#20), I can live the semi-retired life (#18) now and for the duration.
In post #12 for March, I detail how to afford travel by making it a financial and lifestyle priority. It might even help you envision the floor on your cost of living, as it has for me.
Rocco, you may already know this, but most produce in the U.S. is grown by Big Ag. Fixed on the potential profit, they harvest the crop before it's ready in order to make room for more. Then it sits in a warehouse for months before being shipped to the point of sale. Additionally, during the growing season most crops are sprayed with pesticides. Even the organic varieties are subject to drifting overspray from nearby fields. So, it shouldn't be surprising that it tastes like crap compared to what you've just experienced. Many expats report feeling better and also losing weight after a few months on their new diet of non-U.S. food. The only way around it for those of us living here is to shop farm-to-table places as much as possible.
Bar San Callisto is a national treasure!
I'm looking forward to diving into your series. My husband just retired from the United Nations & we are moving after 16 years in Rome to Venice!