{"id":14484,"date":"2020-05-07T10:58:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T08:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=14484"},"modified":"2020-10-22T07:47:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T05:47:18","slug":"florentines-reclaiming-florence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/florentines-reclaiming-florence\/","title":{"rendered":"Florentines Reclaiming Florence"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some 50 days, Florence was sleeping, and she was having bad dreams. Streets designed to play host to thousands of people were empty and eerily quiet, the tension palpable. Or that\u2019s what I understand from the photos I saw<\/a>: I myself wasn\u2019t there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I live in Florence, but out in the suburbs. From inside my home, my daily view is not medieval marbles but a post-war apartment block glimpsed from between ground-floor bars on the window. During lockdown, I went as far as the trash containers, twice.<\/p>\n

I missed Florence<\/strong>, I missed its green hills, so near to us on this side of the city and yet so far. I missed the architecture that is contemporaneously astonishing and yet at a scale that we can somehow comprehend, I missed the gestures between acquaintances on the street. In some ways I even missed the casino<\/em> of downtown, the tourists who get in my way and who make me feel just slightly superior because I live here, I know this place, and you\u2019re just temporarily visiting.<\/p>\n

\"ponte
A woman walking on ponte Santa Trinit\u00e0, with a view of Ponte Vecchio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today I finally went out, an intrepid, masked urban hiker. Like many Florentines, I went to reclaim my city.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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May 4th<\/sup> marked the start of \u201cphase 2<\/a>\u201d for Italians, a gradual and very slight loosening of the strict stay-at-home legislation put into place on March 9 to keep us as safe as possible from Coronavirus. The most exciting concession \u2013 allowed to Tuscans from May 1st<\/sup> \u2013 is that we are now allowed to take walks, or more specifically, we\u2019re permitted \u201coutdoor physical activity.\u201d (Being out still must be justified with a self-declaration form indicating, in case of a police check, that we are carrying out permitted activities, which have now widened to include visiting relatives<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Art & Travel | Alexandra Korey (@arttrav)<\/a> on