Today, June the 3rd , 2020, I went out for the first time after March the 8th , not for reasons of necessity. Or rather, not for reasons of URGENT necessity, because in my opinion, seeing my city again after 3 months is a bit of a necessity.
It is also the anniversary of the Blog, 4 years old, who would have believed that I would last so long (in fact, let’s face it, now I’m only publishing reblogs, sorrynotsorry).
Let’s begin.
Wash your hands well, put the mask on. Get to the garage. Get the car. Remove the mask. Car up to the parking. Sanitize your hands. Put the mask back on. Take the metro.
EMPTY.
The few present look at each other a little confused, a little scowling, a little pitying. One wonders if a potential means of contagion is being taken for work, study, leisure. As if something changed …
I start my journey at the Colosseum.
EMPTY.
I go to the Trevi Fountain.
EMPTY.
Piazza di Spagna.
EMPTY.
Piazza del Popolo.
EMPTY.
I have lived in this city all my life, and never, EVER, not even in the hottest August I had seen it so empty. Empty and shiny. Empty and melancholy. Empty and romantic. Empty and all to myself.
There are some families walking around, but so far away that I can’t even see the silhouettes.
So, I walk. And for the first time in 33 years and 11 months I SEE it. I see it seriously. With its wonderful sadness of an eternal and abandoned city. With its cracks, fountains, palaces, trees and monuments. With the sun illuminating every corner that I finally stop to admire.
I walk for hours without even realizing it, I go up and down streets that look like a movie set during my lunch break.
I took off the mask and I breathe.
And for the first time, I don’t breathe exhaust or garbage.
Just air.
And I feel I want to cry.
And to laugh.
And I think that tomorrow it will already be full of cars, litter and tourists, of street vendors and street musicians, of florists, of horns and complaints again
and that will be fine
but not today
today there is silence and nostalgia, today there is only you, as you should always be: IMMENSELY BEAUTIFUL
