On the first morning of Rome's Covid-19 lockdown Matthew Kneale felt an urge to connect with
friends and acquaintances and began writing an email describing where he was what was
happening and what it felt like and sent it to everyone he could think of. He was soon
composing daily reports as he tried to comprehend a period of time when everyone's lives
suddenly changed and Italy struggled against an epidemic that was so strange so troubling and
so fascinating that he found it impossible to think about anything else. Having lived in Rome
for eighteen years Matthew has grown to know the capital and its citizens well and this
collection of brilliant diary pieces connects what he has learned about the city with this
extraordinary anxious moment revealing the Romans through the intense prism of the
coronavirus crisis.
