Matthew Kneale - Rome Plague Diaries: Lockdown Life in the Eternal City

The Rome Plague Diaries

Also by Matthew Kneale

FICTION

Pilgrims

Mr Foreigner

Inside Roses Kingdom

English Passengers

Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance

When We Were Romans

Sweet Thames

NON-FICTION

An Atheists History of Belief

Rome: A History in Seven Sackings

Lockdown Life in the Eternal City

Matthew Kneale

Published in hardback in Great Britain in 2021 by Atlantic Books,

an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.

Copyright Matthew Kneale, 2021

The moral right of Matthew Kneale to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-83895-301-0

E-book ISBN: 978-1-83895-302-7

All photographs copyright Matthew Kneale

Map artwork by Jeff Edwards

Printed in Great Britain

Atlantic Books

An imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd

Ormond House

2627 Boswell Street

London

WC1N 3JZ

www.atlantic-books.co.uk

For Shannon, Alexander and Tatiana

On the first morning of Romes Covid-19 lockdown I went out with my son, Alexander, to a coffee bar (in those early days they were still open) so we could do some work. We both had plenty to do. Alexander was preparing for his final school exams and I was revising a film script. We sat down, suitably socially distanced, and set up our laptops.

Id been working on the script for several weeks so it should have been easy, but every time I tried to begin, my thoughts flitted away. This moment, when our lives were suddenly changed as Italy struggled against an epidemic, was so strange, so troubling and so fascinating, that I found it impossible to think about anything else. I had a strong urge to connect with far-away friends, and with people Id been out of contact with for too long. I began writing an email, describing where I was, what was happening and what it felt like, and I sent it to everyone I could think of.

The next morning I woke up determined to get back to the script, but the same thing happened, as it did over the following days. Ive never been someone whos keen on social media and is always checking for messages, but now I was constantly sending off emails and waiting for replies, and I found it hard to step away from my computer. Italy was about two weeks ahead of the UK in terms of the curve of infections and, knowing how bad the situation was in Lombardy and other parts of the north, and seeing how unfocussed the UK authorities were, I accompanied my accounts with warnings, urging people to take action themselves to reduce their risk of infection, to work from home, close offices and take their children out of school.

Some people wrote back that they found my daily reports soothing and encouraged me to carry on with them. My mothers publicist, Philippa Perry, sent some to the Sunday Times where they were published. When my agent, Georgia Garrett, and my editor at Atlantic Books, Will Atkinson, read them, they both felt they could work as a book: a diary of Romes plague lockdown.

I wasnt sure at first. I was concerned that, though there would be plenty to recount in the early days when the crisis was at its height, this would change as people adjusted to their new lockdown lifestyle. But as I wrote more entries, I found they began to change into something more than a coronavirus diary. Ive lived in Rome for the last eighteen years, and I also lived here in the late 1980s, so Ive grown to know the city and the Romans well. Ive written two novels about the city, When We Were Romans and Pilgrims, and also a non-fiction book, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, but Id never considered writing about my own experiences in the city. I didnt think anybody would be particularly interested in our lives here. But to connect what Id learned about the city with this extraordinary, anxious moment to reveal the Romans through the prism of the coronavirus crisis that, I felt, would be worth writing.

This book is the result. It covers a short, intense period of time, beginning with the start of the lockdown and ending when it was first eased. I have extended the first entry to recount our lives in the weeks before the lockdown, as the virus spread in northern Italy and began to threaten Rome, but otherwise I have changed the diary entries as little as possible. I wanted them to stay just as they were at the time of writing, unspoiled by hindsight and with any misconceptions preserved intact. A time of plague is not a moment of wise reflection but a time of fear and adrenalin, of rumours and lies, of over-confidence and under-confidence, and this was what I wanted to relay.

A time of plague brings out the worst in people and the best. I have to say that when it came to the Romans a people for whom I have great affection but few illusions it brought out the best.

Rome, May 2020

All locked down

Ring-a-ring o roses,

A pocket full of posies,

Atishoo, atishoo,

Were all locked down.

Im sitting in a cafe and bakery in Testaccio, just a few minutes walk across the river from our home. The cashier has put two flowerpots on the ground in front of her till, so you have to stretch out your arm to pay, and theres black tape on the floor to make it clearer still where you cant stand. A man wearing latex gloves comes to collect empty cups and when I go to get my second coffee, I find the staff assembled behind the cake display, engaged in a very serious-looking meeting. When the lockdown was announced last night, I imagined the Romans would bend the new rules a little, or even be downright rebellious, but no, it seems theyre getting quite into this. People have an air of busy correctness, and a pride, too, in doing their part against the virus.

For the most part I feel were reasonably well prepared. Ive long had a sensitivity, even a slight paranoia, concerning plagues, probably because I owe my existence to one. In 1918 my grandfather, who was a theatre and opera critic in Berlin, married for the first time. He was fifty-one and his bride was nineteen (I make no comment). Within months she was pregnant and shortly afterwards she and her unborn baby were dead. The Spanish Flu, in mirror image to Covid-19, spared the old and was most dangerous for those in young adulthood, and especially pregnant women. Two years later, my grandfather was married again, to one of the bridesmaids from his first wedding, who was also nineteen (again I make no comment) my grandmother.