It was the 13 March 2020. Two days before they had just decreed confinement in Rome. A strange virus threatened us all. The people made a trench on the balconies. Those who risked their lives fighting against an invisible death were still not applauded.. Journalists were one of the few professions that could go out into the streets.. I thought about the homeless, Where had those who didn't have a house to protect themselves gone?? I went out to look for them in Rome. I always dreamed of seeing that city without the hordes of tourists that invade its streets.. That day there were almost no human beings in them. Never was a walk I took through any city more sad and disturbing.. I heard the rumble of my footsteps on the cobblestones. I went to the Historical Center, where many homeless people asked for money before camouflaged among the tourists. Now they were very visible. They were few, but very visible. I was the only human being who contemplated the Trevi Fountain. In the Plaza de España and the Pantheon we were five or six people, neighbors who walked quickly with a cigarette in their mouth or a bag in their hand. In Piazza Navona the scene seemed more disturbing to me. The seagulls had taken over the almost empty square. in a restaurant, a guy was taking out the trash from a restaurant in big bags. No one would eat all that food anymore.. Few bodies crossed between the marbles, and two police cars were in the center. Then I noticed an old woman in a wheelchair.. I was alone, next to the Brazilian Embassy building. I approached him to ask him if he needed anything.. He started waving his hands, bent over stumps, while his mouth spasmed and he was unable to make an understandable sound. He looked with rage. His inability was evident.. I went to talk to the agents. I identified myself as a journalist and told them that there was a lady who seemed abandoned. sparked slightly, sparkled on the dirty gray hair of that lady. The police treated me with reluctance.. "They leave it there every morning and then they come to pick it up.", one answered me. I made a displeased gesture, and he understood that his response seemed as inhuman as it was useless.. "I'll see if you need anything.", said his partner. That man doubted that that lady could need anything.
The world seemed to me to be collapsing with fear. I felt small and fragile before the marbles of God.
