Even if preserving our life and the life of our beloved, we lost a lot with the pandemic crisis. Each of us are missing something important.

I'm personally missing the more obvious things - a better economy, freedom, health - but I have to admit that I miss the summer crowd. I'm someone who most often stays alone (working mostly from home, and loving mountain trekking). But only now I can understand how much I miss those evenings at the sea in the Italian summer, made of a kaleidoscope of people dressed to stay together in the relief from the day's heat. I miss the artisan's street markets and live music at the beach.

There was a lot of people at the beach in the day, but the evenings were turned down, grey, with a sense of danger and fear of touching and being touched by the crowd. A walk felt a lot like an act of senseless bravery. Ice cream shops were like military zones. Fish restaurants and pizzerias places to be visited only with care.

I miss this sweet sense of leisure, that is a bit like Boccaccio's light way of passing through the plague.

Tags: health, leisure