I feel safe here in Italy, in a place where everyone wears their face mask in indoor spaces. The worst I can see is the occasional person who doesn’t cover their nose, but every person has a mask. And they’re often surgical or even FFP2 (N95) masks, not unwashed bandanas.

After a month spent in a place that had given up in fighting the pandemic while it was going through its worst wave of infections ever, staying here feels much, much safer.