In early 2022, we jumped at the chance to buy tickets when we heard Bruce Springsteen was going to play the Circus Maximus (yes, THE Bruce Springsteen at THE Circus Maximus!) in Rome in May 2023.  We were very fortunate to get tickets… although back in early 2022, with Covid still rearing its ugly head, we were not sure the concert would actually happen, or, indeed, what the world would look like.

As some of you may know, we are Rome “Destination Experts” on Tripadvisor (TA), where we frequently post in the Rome Forum. When the Springsteen tickets went on sale, we noticed a bunch of people on TA discussing that they too were going to the concert. So we said, well, if Covid is under control in an other year, then why not have a party?

Jump ahead to early 2023.  The world had pretty much returned to normal, so we said, Hey, let’s do this! The Tripadvisor community is a big one, and often a fun one. Soon, we had responses of several Destination Experts (DEs) excited (in these just-over-Covid days) for a TA meetup, as well as several TA enthusiasts we’ve met on the Rome Forum.  Legale (DE from London on solo travel) came to visit for the weekend. It was the first time any of us had met face to face, and it was a blast.  Like Laura, Legale (second from left at the top of this post) is an attorney, and the two had a lot to talk about.

On May 20, we hosted the official TA meetup/cocktail party at our apartment.  It was wonderful welcoming new friends from TA. We served canapés from one of our favorite wine bars, Achilli al Parlamento, and opened up some bottles of Prosecco.

Destination Expert Rafaelle R (Vatican, Chieti, and more) brought along his lovely wife Roberta (far right in the top photo) and charming daughter Francesca (second from right in the top photo), a student at Rome’s prestigious La Sapienza university.  It was the first time we had met Rafaelle in person, although we had grown to know him virtually during the Covid lockdown, by chatting on Tripadvisor.  Now we look forward to visiting Rafaelle and his family in Chieti.

We met Maureen (far left on photo at the top of this post), and discovered that she had lived in Rome for several years, and attended the same school David had! We also met Ilham and Quentin (from Paris) and Paul and Carol (from New York), who were all attending the Bruce Springsteen concert.  

A good time was had by all, and new friendships were forged.  More on the Springsteen concert in a following post. As a nice touch, Tripadvisor sent along a bunch of fun swag for the meetup guests (thanks, TA!).