Last week, I returned to Bologna’s historic center for the first time since the end of February. Bologna is my hometown and I live in the suburbs and, in normal times, I may go to the center once a week or, in normal tourist season, more often to run my tours. In normal times, it’s a regular experience I don’t give much thought to; in Covid times, it becomes an event to write about.

Perhaps because in Italy we went through one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, and perhaps because Italian media keeps pounding on us an alarmist tone, but for now at least, I no longer take for granted even something as trivial as going to the city center; you never know when it may be taken away from you. (During lockdown, for about two months, we were allowed to go out only to reach our workplace, go grocery shopping, to the pharmacy, or to medical visits).