I have been to London recently: a long weekend catching up with friends, strolling around familiar places, and discovering new ones.
Once again, it has struck me how London makes me feel at home, even if it is a metropolis and I lived there only for a little more than two years.
Two years like no other.
I moved to London in September 2019, and I had only a few months to adjust to the new city and workplace before our lives were turned upside-down. I was in London when I heard a new virus had emerged in China, when the first cases in mainland Europe were worryingly reported, and when the WHO declared the pandemic. I was in London when I started my science communication blog, and when, like many other scientists, I redirected the focus of my research, trying to add small pieces to this still uncompleted scientific puzzle.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the strongest collective trauma I have experienced in my adult life. I found myself alone in a foreign country, watching in dismay what was happening in Italy, the first European country fiercely hit by the pandemic – my home country to which I was not allowed to return.
Despite all this, I have very fond memories of my time in London.
For that, I have to thank the people I was surrounded by (some of them were my gracious hosts during my last visit) that never made me feel alone. Someone told me that we miss the times, not the places. I surely do not miss the fear, the uncertainty, and the sorrow we experienced in 2020, but it undoubtedly was a time of deeply felt and collectively shared emotions that brought us together.
I will never forget those times, I will never forget those feelings, and London will always hold a special place in my heart.
Photo by Carla Usai. The National COVID Memorial, St Thomas Hospital, London (UK).
Virus&Co. 