An Italian Odyssey

Did you know that according to the Jewish calendar this year is 5780, which starts of the decade of ‘Peh’, the mouth. Last year ended the decade of ‘Ayin’, the eye. Interesting, no? Considering that we are all being told to be good little girls and boys and cover our mouths. I guess we had ‘see no evil’ and now we are at ‘speak no evil’ Only now, you can substitute truth for evil. AlaraApothecary: we help you win trivia quizzes. The spiritual premise here is that whatever you speak influences how things turn out for you. As it says in Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” so be careful what you profess into your life and that of others. In Matt 12:37 Jesus says, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Eek. Don’t really fancy judgement day much. Afterall, the Bible says God brought the world into being by speaking, “Let there be light, and there was light“, that’s how powerful the right words by the right person can be. At the annunciation, “Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” Jesus is actually often referred to as The Logos, The Word. Sorry, I’m an etymology-nerd, what can I say?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jm7MnqeM22Jjmerj77PV-AF02cxR5axC/view?usp=sharing

I’m in sunny Firenze for a much longed-for break. As you can see from the video, to paraphrase the old but memorable Foster lager ad, Italians don’t give a 4X for Covid masking. Despite the daily catastrophe reportage in the UK about the severe Italian lockdown and the way they are dropping like flies, the reality is very different. I did meet the obligatory mask nazi at the airport but her outrage was much tempered by the fact that the colleague sitting next to her was wearing her mask around her neck 🙂

So, what’s happening here in Florence? Well, we all put a mask on when entering a shop and immediately take it off when exiting. Outside the shops, those who feel vulnerable wear one. The vast majority, non. Social distancing? Come on, this is Italy, probably the most tactile nation in the world. Contact tracing apps, leaving all your details, a DNA sample and a full copy of your genome sequence? Non. Everyone gives strangers room but there are no morons jumping into the path of oncoming traffic because you are approaching them on a pavement. It is crazy hot, and all you can see is people pulling down their mask to breathe for a while and then pulling it up, vaguely round the nose. Most stores don’t give a damn about how secure that mask is and quite often people genuinely forget to pull them back up. A quick question: which shops are busy with sales – those with a securiy guard who may or may not police masking such as the department stores, or the little shops without a guard and a salesperson who is more concerned about dying from starvation if their business fails before they die from Covid? I actually timed myself – I can tolerate a max of 3 minutes behind a mask before I start sweating profusely and look as if I’m spiking the mother of all fevers. Not a good look re: covid’s many, many symptoms 🙂 I have spent very little money in those shops, let’s put it that way. I’m spending all my money on food instead. The Osso Buco a la Fiorentina at La Cantinetta was amazing. I didn’t want to wait 25 minutes while they cooked the rice so I had it with grilled vegetables instead.

As for the whole quarantine of goods, changing rooms are open, you can try clothes, shoes, earrings, you name it. They just wipe the earrings and put them back into stock and clothes go straight back on the racks. It would seem that Italians with their history of changes of government every few months or so put zero confidence in the pronouncements of their clueless politicians and are applying their common sense. If there are loads of people in Florence with friends and family who are at death’s door from Covid, they are covering their sadness with having a terrific time. Until then, they are fast going back to the old normal. In fact one of my favourite bars Coronas Cafe is doing a roaring trade as can be seen below. That bartender was in a pretty good mood:

Meanwhile in Blighty, deaths are now in single figures but that doesn’t scare people enough so let’s switch to number of cases instead. Everyone stay home until we find the elixir of immortality. Good luck with that. Jobs are being lost in their thousands every single day, the GPs are still closed and the hospitals are still empty. Thousands of cases of cancer, diabetes, incipient strokes and heart attacks are being put on the back burner. Pubs must close if schools reopen. Eh?? That’s a non-sequitur nonpareil. What’s the link? It’s the year of the mouth; I respectfully suggest that we remove our muzzles and demand our lives back. Hate to break it to them but life has a mortality rate of 100% unless the Lord returns first and I’m guessing that most of you are agnostic/atheists so you’re not banking on that. I intend to live my life to my best capacity, my new constant utterance being ‘resist the devil, and he will flee you’. No messing about! Have a wonderful week and consider booking that holiday……Buona sera.