The weekend was sunny and bright. Springing forward on Satuday night revealed some incredible afternoon light in the corridoino (little hallway) on the north side of our apartment, whose windows face south. I might have gotten mildly sunburnt yesterday afternoon sitting there. I certainly began

Eleanor (5) is dressed today in her Rapunzel costume, complete with long faux braid twined with silk flowers, blissfully unaware of the irony here on the fourth floor of our apartment. I appreciate her penchant to don fancy dress at the drop of a hat.

My name is Monica; for those of you just joining, I live in Florence, Italy, with my husband and our two young children. We’ll all four American, but Italian at heart, and profoundly Latin in our souls, for reasons of history, passion, education, and experience.

If I weren’t writing these posts I would, by now, have lost all sense of time. If you are entering into a quarantine period, or have started quarantine and isolation in the last few days, start a journal, or a calendar, or something. If you

I turned a corner late yesterday and this morning. Farm wife is back, and staying busy. I cannot control what happens on this planet, but I can see to our tiny solar system here, its four planets and innumerable moons. The wave is cresting and

I awoke this morning to the faint sound of some sort of aircraft over our roof, gently vibrating the window of our skylight. A Medivac? A helicopter? The skies have been so silent for days that it was a genuine surprise to hear anything besides

Yesterday (Day 14) was a rough day in lockdown, plagued with anxiety and the jitters. Feeling helpless. Trapped. Stuck. At the mercy of pathogens and a global screeching halt. I walked at least 30 laps in the garden to arrive at 1000 steps. Italy’s count

Monday morning has melted into all days. This evening marks two weeks that all of Italy went into quarantine, nationwide. But our week is just one big 168-hour day now. We got up, made breakfast, had about 35 minor disputes related to, but not limited

I’ll cover the news today in order of ascending filter. Inner news. I had a dream last night that Jason and I worked and worked on a gourmet Thanksgiving dinner for two days. My last task was to bring him the platter of turkey, cranberries,