Spring – that beautiful symbolic time of rebirth, light and growth – arrived just a week or so after Italy went into lockdown due to COVID-19. Being inside so much during this time has made some people feel as though they missed this glorious season that brings more color into our lives (Joanne will share her perspective on this next week). Lucky for me, my lovable Labrador has me outside at least three times a day (more when not in lockdown). We have not walked as far as we once did and we have not walked the variety of routes we did pre-lockdown but we have walked every day of lockdown. And, every day, we have seen spring ignoring the dark cloud of the virus and piano, piano as Italians say (slowly, slowly), showing up throughout Lucca.

From the famed wall of Lucca, which we can’t walk on right now but we can look wistfully at, to neighborhood window boxes and even the brick walls of the fosso (canal) that runs through one end of the city, spring has infiltrated Lucca. You can see it best in photos taken at the beginning of lockdown and more recently.

The trees above line one section of Le Mura (the wall that encloses the historic center of Lucca). Barren in the waning days of winter, the growth over six weeks has been remarkable.

Some growth has occurred more quickly. This rose bush, for example, graces the end of the street on which I live. In just three days, we saw it turn from wound-tight bud to elegant openness. We’re awaiting the opening of the bush’s other buds.

The rose bush that grows beneath this statue had a lone flower at the end of winter (notice the stark trees on the wall behind it) and now is full of pale pink life.

These signs of spring have not only made my dog walks more interesting but they also have reminded me that as much as the virus is changing all our lives, there is some certainty still to be found. Spring is spring and that is a beautiful thing.   -post by Judy