At Home : Letters from Italy at the Time of Coronavirus. Story Seven : Naples, Rome, Venice.

SABRINA IN NAPLES

Sabrina is one of the most dynamic Italians I know, with flashing eyes, a ready smile, sharp intellect and an insatiable passion for all things Neapolitan.  

She lectures, very fast and immensely engagingly about  — for example —  Underground Naples; Pompei’s newest excavations (citing specific houses by number) while describing from memory the various frescoed scenes on walls of the villas she loves most; mozzarella (how to make it, where to buy it, how to eat it, and how to cook it); the history of Roman glass.  She clasps her hands together often when she speaks and has a bewitching habit of saying “I am talking too much” or “I need to stop talking” and then continuing, always to the delight of our clients, because everything that she says is presented with such genuine brio.  Her art historical and historical information is academic and impeccable. 

Once you have been to the Archeological Museum of Naples with Sabrina you feel, as a client said, “that your trip to Italy is already completely perfect, and you can spend the rest of the time frittering away in Amalfi because you have essentially had six centuries of art history presented by the best teacher in the world.” 

Sabrina is in lockdown in Naples, and has not been out of her house for three weeks. Her husband Fabio, who has been working from home for the same period, is their designated shopper and leaves the house once a week. Their daughters Caterina, 10 1/2, and Elisabetta, nine, have also not left the house for three weeks.  They live in city center Naples, in Mergellina, two blocks from the sea.

Sabrina writes : “Since it is Saturday, there was homework only in the morning, and then lunch and then Lego and games and then dancing.  Later we’ll see a Harry Potter movie.

We’ve been working hard in the kitchen, last week preparing graffe <a unique Neapolitan donut made of flour and potatoes>.  

We shared them with the neighbors — obviously staying more than two meters away from them. For Father’s Day on March 19 we prepared zeppole and the girls made cards for Fabio.  Very successful ! 

The weather has been rather unpleasant and rainy so I have not minded staying inside and reading. Sometimes however I am overtaken by panic. In my dreams it is always night, and never day. 

It breaks my heart to think of those who have lost loved ones. I remember the clients you sent me, and to them I send a huge hug.

Today we did a virtual tour of the British Museum, which we all enjoyed. We were supposed to be going to London in three days.  Since that is impossible, we’ve brought London to Naples.  

Now we’re at work on spinach and ricotta ravioli, staring with making the pasta.  Sometimes I think rather than being in lock down we are in a dress rehearsal for Master Chef ! 

My mother shared a photo of an iris in her garden in Angri.  It is the first of the season. Look at the color !  I marvel at the energy of nature.  

We video call my mother daily.  And my sister.  Her 20 year old son and his cat have no problems with the lock down but my sister is going out of her mind.”

DEBBY IN ROME

In Rome, everyones’ hair is becoming shaggier, with grey or natural color roots increasingly visible.  

Home Salon owner Debby has an international clientele for whom a monthly visit is a much anticipated “must”.  As it will be weeks till we can leave our homes, we are all covering our mirrors with towels so as not to see our hair and we are just getting on with it. 

On day 20 of lock down, Debby wrote me to say : “I believe that I’ve not been that well.  I believe that my heart and soul got sick. I honestly think that I was very scared. I’m on my feet once again and I am ready for the fight. Love. Consideration, and whatever good can come out of me will be my weapons.  I’ll dress myself with compassion and try to save whatever I can with a nice word or a smile. I’ll try to be helpful. I’ll try not to judge. I’ll try to be patient. I’ll try to do my best. I know it’s going to be hard.  

I suffer a lot. I continually ask myself : how the hell did mankind allow itself to get into this ?

Truly, I am better now.  I just need a bit of time on my own to get some energy back.”

Her deeply honest words resonated with me, and I think would with much of Italy. 

The WhatsApp memes which Italians have been trading incessantly on their phones were initially light and then turned to mordent humor (nearly all of which was bitingly funny, and never involved toilet paper). But now I see more classical music clips, frequent aerial views of beloved Italian cities, and be-strong messages put out by deeply wounded cities like Bergamo. These memes are longer, more wistful, and into them I read that that this is going to be a long haul.  

Many of my Italian friends and colleagues are turning to meditation, to on-line classes in subjects they know nothing about, and — as leaving the house is so difficult and so discouraging for urban dwellers — are mixing up night with day.  Midnight to 4 AM is the time when I receive most of my WhatsApp memes from Italians.

ANTONELLA IN VENICE

Antonella in Venice today said this : “what a disaster. This morning I did some house work, gymnastics at home, and then went out to buy bread and my newspaper.  Tomorrow I will get fruit and vegetables – the market boat at San Barnaba will be there. ” She provided all of these photographs.

“Veneto has tried to block the spreading of the virus by locking down completely our first outbreak town and by undertaking as making as many tests as possible. This has helped to keep the situation under better control.  

Historically the lagoon which surrounds Venice and its islands has worked as a defense wall, keeping out both enemies and also epidemic. The Republic of Venice had its first Ministry of Health in 1348.

Thanks to a lockdown it was possible to survive the last plague epidemic in 1630 when much of Europe did not. The Salute church was in fact built in that year in recognition of the Virgin’s divine intercession in stopping Venice’s plague.”

In Venice today, our economy is far too largely based on tourism and the permanent the inhabitants are few. Thus it is easier for us to respect the lockdown. “