All photographs taken on 4 May 2020
Four years ago today (four? a hundred? who even knows any more), on Monday 4th May, the strict Italian lockdown rules began to be lifted. For the first time in two months one could take a solo walk as far as one wanted with no justifications to the police required.
The only church I found open was, suitably enough, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s favourite church, Santa Marina in Campitelli (itself an ex voto for the end of a pandemic). So I took myself off on a walk which started in Pigneto and took in, well, pretty much everything. I think I remember that day I walked twenty kilometres.
Almost no one else seemed to have had the same idea (with the exception of Mountain Butorac of the Catholic Traveler whom I ran into on via dei Fori Imperiali), there was a curious cautiousness in the air. But the sun shone and out I strode, over grassy cobbles and through deserted piazzas—fountains playing for no one—and it was wonderful. Very odd, but wonderful. Gosh, I’d missed it all.
This prompted me to go back and look at photos I took that day on my long long walk. They are all almost the same!
What an amazing experience.