Egidio Emiliano Bianco an der Università degli Studi di Roma 'La Sapienza'.
I spent my "quarantine" in Milan, Italy, my hometown. I had prepared to get back to Rome, my Erasmus plus town, in March, but I was not permitted from what we all know. Italy has been the first European country to be heavily hit from the virus, and everything has changed in a heartbeat. Lockdown officially started on March 8th and we have just got out of it (on May 4th). The situation is still far from normality, however.
The last two months have been split in almost contrasting moods and attitudes. The everyday bad news about deaths – and Italian deaths have mostly happened in my region, Lombardy – as well as the isolation, the impossibility of giving oxygen to your mind required many efforts to endure on the one hand, on the other I succeeded to take advantage of the restrictions to progress with my PHD research. Since I have almost all the research materials I need in my home, I have not been limited.
But again, the routine was, and still is, difficult to sustain. After hours looking at the screens both working for my research and doing video calls with friends, I experienced for the first-time true pain in my eyes. Breaking the routine meant going to the supermarket waiting two hours to get in, looking outside the balcony, and only in the last period, taking a walk in the courtyard. Not sensational experiences.
Hope to return to Rome soon.
Egidio Emiliano Bianco studiert im 3. Semester des Doktoratsstudiums Kunstwissenschaft und Philosophie an der KU Linz und war im akademischen Jahr 2019/20 in Rom, Italien
12.5.2020/pk