Advertisement

Shedding a tear for Italy, and raising a smile

<span>Photograph: EPA</span>
Photograph: EPA

Dear Ms Melandri. That was quite the letter (Letter from Italy by Francesca Melandri, 27 March). A stark laying out of facts underpinned by a jaw-dropping sadness. You write as if you have witnessed society being picked up and turned over, its vulnerable underbelly exposed. Your words express so poignantly how we are feeling and are likely to be feeling in the weeks (or months) that lie ahead. Thank you for that.

In the past decade or so, we have become huge fans of your country. My daughters were part of an educational project that saw them being taught by native Italian speakers. As they came home from school clutching their first reading books in your language, we resolved to spend as much time in Italy as our finances would allow. From Sperlonga to Cagliari, Rome to Verona, we have mingled with your people, sat in cafes encouraging our children to order in Italian. We have pointed out street signs and notices, asking them to translate.

Last Thursday night we turned to our children again, asking for a translation of Pope Francis’s address to the world. They told us he was urging us to have faith, that we are all passengers in the same boat. In the rain, from an almost empty St Peter’s Square, we thought he looked and sounded like a broken man.

A couple of months ago, I draped the Italian flag around my shoulders as I joined friends at a vigil on the eve of Brexit day. As we bade farewell to our European community, we sang defiantly, denying that we Scots were severing any connection. Weeks later we watch bewildered as Italy and other nations have been brought to their knees. Your message reminds us that even in these deadly times, solidarity and friendship endure. Thank you for that.
Karen Greenshields
Glasgow

• Page three of Saturday’s Guardian was an editorial triumph. The two articles (Francesca Melandri’s Letter from Italy and Nancy Banks-Smith’s Tale of the vanishing pie) made me both cry and laugh in the space of a few minutes – a cathartic combination in these coronavirus times.
Julia Rumsby
Little Melton, Norfolk

• Thank you, Francesca Melandri, for your truthfulness. It brings tears to my eyes.
Patrick Hawke-Smith
Saffron Walden, Essex