AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR

Italy

 Ordinary life through an extraordinary.  Venice and Rome, Italy 2020

Used to observe distant countries, see and record the changing world, last year I observed and caught the world through our European changing cities. Here are some photographs of two Italian  cities  usually overcrowded with  people coming to visit from all over the world: Venice and Rome.

In summertime Venice had somehow returned to what it once was many years ago. Without crowds of tourists poured through the narrow streets and the cruise ships that monstrously invaded the lagoon, I could hear my voice again, the silent canals could finally breath and the golden beach of the Lido was peacefully in harmony with  the sea. Rome, in late spring and fall, looked like certain sunny summers when the city empties itself for holidays and the sultry heat. Only few people going around by tramways or in empty squares patrolled by policemen with the sound of the sea gulls in the air. Documenting ordinary life along the streets, it was like looking at old photographs during the pandemic Spanish flu in 1918.