The malaise is real

This post is number 32 in a series.

Back in Rome, and there is definitely something less buzzing about the atmosphere. There are crowds in the streets, but they seem to be plodding. There isn’t the spring in the step or the purposive energy. More like knots of people hanging around, or walking aimlessly. But this is not the passegiata; this is just, on the surface, people with nowhere to go. I may be reading more into this than it deserves, but all the punditry on Italy’s malaise right now does seem very tangible. And to be honest, I don’t expect much to change when the elections are all over.