Well, needless to say, there’s not much to report this week. Everything and everyone is on lockdown. Incredibly (I have to say this again) it seems people are really taking this seriously and respecting the rules and dutifully filling out their “passes” for any outside trip to the pharmacy or grocery store.

As an aside, I would like to point out the different angles with which news outlets report on the ongoing situation; In the US, on CNN, they report that Italians are unruly and undisciplined. In Italy on Sky, they report that in the US, Americans are lining up in droves to buy guns and arming themselves to the teeth! It is becoming very tiresome having to dispel all of these sweeping and inaccurate representations.

Life indoors for me has been easy since I had a minor surgery just 2 days before the lockdown, so I would have been stuck home anyway. I haven’t had to deal with any of the lines or directly encounter any of the frustrations as mostly my husband and son have been doing all the errands. But they tell me that it has been very orderly, people are patient and polite.

We continue to have lots of interaction on WhatsApp with our neighbors and friends. One left a case of beer on my floor near the elevator (easy trip from 2 floors up or down) for people to help themselves. Last night we had a balcony happy hour which was sweet! Today we had a 70th birthday celebration for my neighbor; My hubby and I hung a big birthday banner in front of his door late last night to surprise him. Other neighbors this morning are dropping off baked goods and bottles to make his birthday special under these difficult conditions.

We have not yet experimented with video dinners, but i may try to plan one this weekend!

Normally now we would be gearing up for the Trieste in Fiore festival on the via XX Settembre. People would be out enjoying these beautiful sunny days golfing, foraging for wild asparagus and bladder campion, going for Sunday drives to Slovenia or Croatia for lunch at the agriturismos but instead here we are…

I’m finding it hard to muster the desire to post… At the same time I don’t want to let the blog sputter out… I promise i will try to come up with something more compelling next week! In the meantime, here is a list of local Trieste businesses doing food and beverage delivery, courtesy of MissClaire, another local italian blogger.

May your quarantine continue to go smoothly. I really believe this is a time to reflect, reset and re-evaluate a lot of things in our individual lives, in our society and our politics. I hope that after this we can all come together and work together towards a more harmonious existence with each other and nature.

If your would like to donate to local efforts to raise money for first responders:

See you next week!