Valentina La Rocca's Quarantine Letter from Rome During Coronavirus Lockdown

During Italy's coronavirus lockdown, Artribune launched a series of letters from intellectuals describing their domestic experiences. Valentina La Rocca, an art professional, writes from Rome after returning from Paris, where life was still vibrant with a Femen protest on International Women's Day and a street performer reciting La Traviata. She describes adapting her bookshop Libreria Cascianelli to the #iorestoacasa decree, finding her horror vacui home full of distractions: a floor carpeted with 19th-century faces, and Vesalius anatomy drawings as objects of meditation. At 6 PM, music from windows fills the street with Mameli's hymn and T.O.K., and she prepares rabbit cacciatora to bring to her resilient 90-year-old mother across Ponte Sisto with an autocertification. She likens Rome to a beautiful, enchanted empty set under a long sad Ferragosto. The letter is part of a series that includes contributions from Antonio Mancinelli, Alessandra Mammì, Domitilla Dardi, Antonio Forcellino, Gianluca Marziani, Maria Luisa Frisa, and Clara Tosi Pamphili.