This Evening's Rush Hour--Without Any Rush

5:58 pm, not a soul in sight

Except for brief trips to the market for food we've been staying home for the last few days, as directed by Italian authorities. But this evening I had to walk across town to pick up a prescription, so armed with my resident identity card; the required auto-declaration form downloaded from a government website, printed, and filled out, attesting to the fact that I was venturing out for a necessary and appropriate reason; and my camera, I walked to and then through Piazza San Marco, then down the Riva degli Schiavonni to Via Garibaldi. All of these places should have been crowded on a fine early spring evening just before and just after 6 pm, but none of them (as you can see) were.

Gregory Dowling, long-time Venice resident, novelist (whose three Alvise Marangon mysteries provide a wonderful fact-based fictional introduction to Venice of the 18th century), scholar, translator, and Ca' Foscari professor, offers an excellent overview of what it's been like to live in this city since the coronavirus first started making itself felt here in his post "A Few Notes from Venice in the Time of Coronavirus."

5:52 pm, Le Mercerie: shops all closed, calli empty

6:12 pm in front of the Palazzo Ducale

6:15 on Riva degli Schiavonni

6:21 pm: A (closed) hotel of one's own

6:25, further along Riva degli Schiavonni

Via Garibaldi at 6:28 pm

6:34 pm, just off Via Garibaldi: "All will be well" says the rainbow banner