Image via Emiliano Ponzi
Last night we took the metro down to Romolo and went to Carlo e Camilla in Segheria for a talk called Chronicles from the Quarantine hosted by the illustrator Emiliano Ponzi and photographer/painter Paolo Ventura. Both released new books of the work they produced during the pandemic.
The talk was in an old limber mill that had been converted into a restaurant. It was outside and everyone sat at spaced out tables, mostly wearing masks, as the two chatted about and shared their work.
It struck me that both of these guys had now published books of work created during the pandemic, as if it's all behind us. It certainly feels more in the past here - the worst of it at least - than in the US, even if infection rates are rising and the government just mandated masks in public.
Ponzi talked about how the lockdown forced him to break habits and routines. It was unsettling at first but maybe better in fact to ditch them and move on. As he writes in his book, “I kept going to the studio, didn’t want to lose my routine. And then all of a sudden, I couldn’t ignore that the pandemic was a fact, it was global, and I needed to change my habits, for my own safety.” (Ponzi’s work started as a visual journal of sorts for the Washington Post chronicling life under lockdown).
With a belly full of risotto and ossobuco, I thought about breaking routines as we got on the 10 Tram and rode it back up from Navigli toward our neighborhood. We got one of the old wooden trams with the glass lamps inside like they have in the Garden District in New Orleans. Riding through a new city at night in an old tram and seeing the world with the eyes of a child was such a breath of fresh air, and moving to a new city has to be one of the ultimate ways to break old routines.
Everything is so new. Everything is so beautifully unfamiliar. I was filled with optimism and joy as we rode north past Spritz kiosks, the old canals, and cafes. I hadn’t experienced this feeling since I moved to San Luis Obispo for my first job in journalism when I was 25. I didn't know anyone and didn't know anything about the place. Everything was so fresh and exciting.
I think this beautiful feeling is what we chase when we travel. It only comes from meeting new people with new ideas, eating new food, and riding an old tram through a new city at night.
How sad it is we've been starved of all of this.