Besides gelato, Italians are enjoying life, freedom
By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist
My absence from columny was due, in part, to having been nine time zones and more than a world away from the Trumpic outrages that have consumed me for the past few years: Italy.
How calming to spend hours in magnificent medieval — and older — churches, absorbed in fantastic mosaics and frescos, statuary and architecture. Wandering ancient Greek and Roman ruins. We — my wife, one of her many sisters, and I — were accompanied by a friend, a brilliant professor of art history, whose broad and deep knowledge of such things and ability and willingness to share it were gifts beyond measure. I’ll never process it all.
For many miles every day, we walked in 90-degree weather; in Palermo, Napoli, Roma, Apulia, and surrounds, such that, despite indulging in perfectly legal, recreational gelato, we lost weight. In Italy! Home of pasta and pizza and cappuccino. Even as we gained knowledge.
And something more politically pertinent about our trip: Masks. Vaccination ID. Testing and vaccination stations on the streets. No one complaining. It was Italy, after all, at the beginning of the pandemic (which really happened and still is, in case you believe the deniers), that was hit hardest. Maybe it takes that amount of death and economic devastation to seal the message, in ways it seems not to have here, for selfish, deluded Trumpists.
Maybe Italians are just smarter. Or traditionally more tuned in to family and friends; to caring about them. A tradition, for the last 2,000 years, that actually follows the teachings of Christ, as opposed to the grifting, phony, fake Trumpochristianity that doesn’t.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-besides-gelato-italians-are-enjoying-life-freedom/
= new reply since forum marked as read
