Roman Quarantine – Day 53

Coronavirus

Tweet I mentioned mosaics in the wilder reaches of the Venetian lagoon yesterday. I’ve no idea when I’ll be able to get on a train to Venice, but there are plenty of mosaics in Rome to sate my thirst for multitudes of tiles glittering in the shadows of solemnly silent...

Roman Quarantine – Day 52

Coronavirus

Tweet On Day 42 of the Roman Quarantine, I mentioned the fabulous mosaics at Ravenna. Following the post, I got an email from my wonderful uncle Tommy recalling his trip there as a student on a hitch-hiking tour of Byzantine sites in 1969. When I was perhaps sixteen,...

Roman Quarantine – Day 51

Coronavirus

Tweet I’m very much looking forward to taking a very long walk on Monday. The slight lifting in the lockdown on 4th May means that we will be allowed to take solo exercise for the first time beyond the vaguely-termed “proximity” of our homes. So my first walk will be...

Roman Quarantine – Day 50

Borromini, Coronavirus

Tweet Before this quarantine I managed, at a push, to write about three blog posts a year. To be perfectly honest I’m not sure that I would have started this if I’d had any idea we’d still be in this situation seven weeks down the line, but I’m very glad I did (thanks...

Roman Quarantine – Day 49

Coronavirus

Tweet Seven weeks ago today I was making pasta e fagioli when an unexpected (at least by us) announcement from the Prime Minister began the national quarantine. That first week was particularly odd: while Italy was shut down, almost everyone else was carrying on as...

Roman Quarantine – Day 48

Coronavirus

Tweet This evening (because he seems to like to speak at supper time) there was an announcement from the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, about how the lockdown will begin to be lifted on 4 May as we enter “Phase 2”. That’s a week on Monday, exactly eight weeks...