Italy's Pandora's vase
Italy's Pandora's vase Yesterday, our Health Minister announced yet again a package of limitations to public life spanning the festivities. As customary in Italy for decades, it is presented at the last possible minute, so that the added discomfort of haste and unpreparedness adds to the intended perception of urgency. But apart from my usual forlorn sarcasm, something hit me this morning when I was taking four FFP2 masks out of my stash, and for once it was a serious if unwanted thought. Our COVID frontman's and Minister's family name, Speranza, means “Hope” in English. That of course has given rise to some confusion and a series of obvious jokes, yet... my mind went back to my high school studies, in classical Greek and Latin. Of course all the main legends of the classical world were at least discussed and I was quite interested in the subject (Robert Graves of “I, Claudius” fame wrote a wonderful book of them with commentaries and notes which is a must to...