Saturday

I meet Apple enthusiast Dennis who arrived from Germany last night. At 7 a.m., downtown Rome has hazy skies. But as my hired car speeds out to the Roma Est mall, ground fog appears--really heavy ground fog. As we round a turn, the mall should be on a nearby hilltop, but it's impossible to see. We zip right by the vehicle entrance because it's nearly impossible to see. Finally, the driver makes a U-turn and pulls over where employee cars are being waved through by security guards. There are perhaps 10-15 other cars of mall visitors waiting to get in. Now on foot, we wait for about 10 minutes until 7:30 a.m., when the security guards start waving the mall's first visitors through. A walk up the hill and through the huge parking structure ends at one of the two main entrances to the mall, on the second level. The mall is shaped like a wide rainbow arch, with Apple at the top and the entrances at the foot. I notice that almost no one is at the entrance where we are, and so we relocate to the east end of the mall.

Already there is a crowd of about 250 people, tightly pressed against the two, double-door entrances to the mall. Inside there's a team of 3-5 security guards wearing blazers and radio headsets watching the crowd. Within minutes, one of the guards comes out and in Italian says they'll be letting in 50 people at a time when the doors do open. There is groaning and yelling from the crowd, which quickly grows behind me and nearly into the adjacent parking lot. By 8:40 a.m. I handcount count at least 450 persons waiting. Who knows how many of these people are waiting for the Apple store, and how many will immediately head to...well, a shoe store?

The crowd presses in and, while it's not exactly dangerous, I do feel the urgency of the people behind me. Perhaps this is a typical situation for Italians, but as an American, it definitely raises my senses.

At 9 a.m. the security guards open the sliding doors, but step into the void to block our entrance. Seeing the doors open, the crowd yells and presses towards the doors, from behind, from the left and from the right. The movement squeezes me from all sides and propels me forward. The guards motion for the crowd to move back, but the weight of people behind me continues. The guards let the first few people inside, and I see them racing out of sight towards the Apple store. For the next five minutes I'm trying to stay on my feet while being pushed forward--not walking, but being swept forward. A woman next to me yells at me in Italian, but I'm no longer under the control of the crowd now.

Finally, I get to the front door, and continue to be squeezed from left and right. And then---boing!--I pop through the open door like a cork, and begin walking fast towards the store. Many others in front of me are running. As I get near the store, there appears to be a formal line of people, but it's about 6-8 people wide. I peer over the line to see that the line broadens out closer to the store, creating a mob directly in front of the store--absolutely no line! I jump the line and head for the front of the store, where the people are again pushing in from the left and right, trying to get into the store. Beyond, I can see people being metered inside, with the Apple store staff yelling and clapping, and handing out the commemorative T-shirts. The store seems to fill up pretty quickly.

Again being jostled from all sides and being shoved forward. The security team tries to keep the crowd safe by creating layers among the crowd, and attempts to fairly meter in people from the left, center and right. Even so, there is lots of yelling, moaning and groaning, all in Italian. Oh, and lots of hand gestures.

After quite a few store openings and hand-counting crowds, I could tell there's no more than 350 people in front of the store, so there's no possibility that the 1,000 T-shirts will be given out before I can get it. But those surrounding me are probably fearful they won't receive their T-shirt.

Finally, after 40 minutes of waiting, I get to the front of the group and am let in. The staff claps as 5-10 of us come inside, and I take my T-shirt.

The store is jammed, and lots of people are face-down, filling out the sweepstakes form that was handed out. Lots of other people are actually trying out the computers and iPods. Even more are looking at products on the side walls: software and books, and iPod accessories.

The store is identical to U.S. stores, but in this case the Italian stone floor didn't have to be transported as far.

There's lots of English in the store. Of course, you see all the Apple product words and descriptions on some packaging. The software section also includes some English-language titles. The product price cards are mostly technical information, so it takes a little closer look to see that some words are Italian and that prices are in euros.

The rear of the store sports the Genius Bar, and flanking it are two "nooks" that have recently become part of the interior design. They're on the side walls at the rear of the store, and include two iMacs and stools for one-on-one instruction or group demos.

I left the store at about 11 a.m., and there was a line of about 40 persons waiting to get in--politely queueing within the stanchions that were previously ignored. The mall itself was jammed with visitors, including at the giant Saturn electronics store on the ground floor. Their flyer included iPod minis, priced the same as those at the Apple store. Outside the mall, there was still a 1/4-mile line of cars waiting to enter the parking structure, marshalled by traffic police.

So, it wasn't a traditional grand opening, but you have to take into account it was a mall and in Italy.

Friday

I took a Metro subway train to the Tiburtina train station slightly north, then hopped a suburban train to the little eastern Rome community of Longhezza, which is largely rural. The roads out here were laid out for farms and are few and far between. I walk the roads doing some reconnaissance, but find that it's nearly impossible to walk to Roma Est. It's on one of several rolling hills that dot the area. In the little neighborhood east of the mall, on an opposite hillside, I found a flock of sheep grazing in view of the mall. At the north end of the hill where the mall sits, a tunnel burrows through to allow the high-speed EuroStar trains to zip by at 100 kph.

Workers are finalizing details of the roadways around the mall, putting down lanes stripes, installing signs and curbing, and putting up large directional signs.

It's a hazy but sunny day, and the forecast is for more sun tomorrow.

Email and other messages from Italian Mac enthusiasts and Web sites indicates that the mall management won't allow anyone on the property early. So it's obvious this will not be a typical grand opening, with an overnight group and a waiting line.

I returned to the hotel in downtown Rome, where the helpful hotel staff arranged for a car to drive me to the mall at 7 a.m. Saturday morning.

About 8 p.m. I receive a call from Dennis, who has flown in from Germany to attend the grand opening. He'll meet me at the hotel for the ride out to the mall in the morning.

Thursday - Evening

The advantage of having money and time is that you can book a flight from San Francisco to Rome with one stop and you get there pronto! But in my case, I had little notice and fewer dollars, so I ended up seeing Chicago, London and Zurich before arriving in Rome after 27 hours of traveling! The good is that there's no rain and the temperature is mild. My hotel is right by the train station, so I'll have an easy time making transportation connections.

On the other hand, "connections" are hard to come by when you're talking about Roma Est. I've quickly noticed that Apple's notice of the store on the apple.it Web site describes "How to Get There," but includes no mention of busses, trains or other forms of transportation.

Wednesday - Afternoon

At this moment I am flying to Rome (Italy) for the grand opening of the Roma Est retail store. The weather is rainy at the moment, but the forecast is for sunny weather on Saturday, when the mall and Apple store both open for the first time.

The mall is located in the eastern suburbs of Rome, in a huge area that is remote from other businesses and homes. Because of its location and site, it's not clear if an overnighter will be possible. But whatever occurs, I'll be there to report on it.

Hopefully I'll have some type of on-scene Internet connection to post periodic reports here. Alternatively, I'll try to post to the home page of the Web site. On the other hand, I may be limited to communicating using my Sidekick 2!

Surf the Roma Est mall Web site for more information.