Plague Diary
GROCERY SHOPPING (AND MORE) IN PANDEMIC FLORENCE
Italians normally hate waiting in line, but there was nothing normal about the COVID lockdown.
Supermarket queues (socially distanced, of course) coiled for block after block around every neighborhood.
From my kitchen window, I could see the local COOP, barely a hundred yards away.
But going there was another story...
PLAGUE ART MINIMALISM AT FLORENCE'S SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA
Florence was coming back to life after an excruciating COVID lockdown and I was leaving my adopted hometown, more or less forever.
Could things get any weirder?
THE APOCALYPSE COMES TO CAMPO DI MARTE: Florentine Street Art in the Time of COVID
Nothing was normal during the Pandemic.
Every horseman heralded the End of Days and rainbows took on a desperate life of their own.
Especially in the realm of children's art, which is often the most revealing of all.
MICHELANGELO'S DAVID: 0 Degrees of Separation
Michelangelo’s David! The original is in Florence’s Accademia Gallery but copies…and copies of copies…and copies of copies of copies…beset us at every turn.
Let’s count the degrees of separation—from here back to the original.
***
Thank you, COVID?!
Michelangelo's David, plus space and silence and no tourists.
Zero degrees of separation to count!