Liberation Day. Seventy-five years ago the National Liberation Committee of Upper Italy declared the Fascist state dissolved and proclaimed the death sentence for all Fascist leaders. By May 1, the declarations had been made real, but it is on April 25 that the liberation of Italy is observed. Observation of the holiday would normally include parades, laying of wreathes at war memorials, and a day off for most businesses.
Who knew that in the middle of a lockdown, the few businesses that remain open would observe Liberation Day? Not I.
For me, today was to be Shopping Day. I woke with lists dancing in my head; what I would buy at the supermarkets, what at Casalinda where they vend soap and the like, what at the herbalist, what at the produce store, the cheese shop. Supplies were running low, the sun was out, I was feeling pretty good, it promised to be a day filled with familiar faces and bits of conversation, and I was in the mood for it all.
The city is beautifully empty on this spring day. I know this because I walked a great deal of it before I understood what was going on. First stop, Metà (PAM). Doors closed. Sign – “Dear Clients, this business will remain closed for all of Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26.” When this happens, there is usually a coda directing us to the store on Signorelli, but nothing. I walked to the other store, passing a gated Casalinda on the way. The other supermarket was shut, too – no sign.
I performed a quick mental inventory of food supplies at home, and determined it would be worth the effort to check a deli or two, as it was only just past noon and they should be open. I hiked all the way to Via Malabranca. All closed. I checked headlines at the one edicola I passed that was open (in fact, the only thing I passed of any variety that was not shuttered) to see if there had been an extraordinary declaration of emergency. Nope.
I reviewed and revised meal plans for the weekend. Onion soup?
Once home I went online to OrvietoNews. There are a number of articles about covid19 and the quarantine, all remarkably upbeat given the subject they covered, and another series on Liberation Day. Ah-hah! I get it.
Even during the early days of lockdown, I never witnessed such empty streets. There may have been other days equally deserted, but they weren’t personal shopping days, so I never actually saw them. Today… what seemed suspended before was a festival by comparison, which, given that today is in fact a festival, is a tad ironic. And while the beauty of the town survives on this perfect spring day, it also calls forth a simple truth; without people and dogs and cats, its loveliness quickly fades. At least it does for me. It becomes a beautiful ruin, even in its relatively good repair. The physical town is in service of its inhabitants and guests. Closed gates and locked doors facing empty streets and squares hold their novelty only briefly before they feel like abandoned relics.
Of course, above and behind, this town is as well-inhabited as it ever is – allowing for a zero population of guests. Maybe people are watching live-streamed ceremonies with masked men in uniform honoring the heroism of a liberation long past, and feeling a stronger-than-usual kinship with those of a previous generation. More are likely tuned to movies – classics and recent hits – or game show reruns that feed the illusion that were you to open the shutters, the streets would be filled with color, as would be expected on any April 25. Except for this one.
People who knew there would be no shopping on Liberation Day are perhaps replicating recipes from mamma, nonna, nonno, or of their favorite trattorie. Then families who have seen more of one another since the ninth of March than they had during the previous 12 months combined, will lift a glass to Italia – so beautiful on this perfect spring day – and salute all liberations, national and personal, past and future. And perhaps unsaid, but not unfelt, we will acknowledge our current liberation, too, one we cannot yet describe or explain, but which overcomes us all from time to time while it waits for definition.