The summer of Covid in the South of Europe

Article written by Renaud Mondetegui for Socrate in Love

It is summertime, the sky has a deep blue tone, sea colors turn awesome and temperatures rise so high and from 2 pm seems to never wanted to stop…getting in the shade at 38, 39 or, in some cases, far more than 40º C (105º F) ! 

Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece live their heat sunny season between anger and worries. Tourists are not around and won’t show up this year, the economy is deeply and badly hit by this pandemic and the future is so uncertain. 

Nevertheless, according to South European people’s mind it always exists this touch of hope, a real optimism : « we’ll get through this… » « tomorrow will be better » « we’ll sort it out » so profoundly rooted in their souls….because through the years and past decades, they were and even are so used to roll up their leaves and rebuild it all from the very beginning. 

People who, now masked to protect themselves from Covid19, have, on a daily basis, to modify and sometimes even change their communication systems and behaviors and adapt them to the new rules. Kisses, hugs and so on are over, meeting around a crowded table for lunch or dinner (normally set up for 8 persons but where the double will sit being very welcome and without any objections) is now considered impossible and not even thinkable. 

But it’s no big deal, it is just a break, people have to be patient, everything will be fine, they will start it over again and will be as happy as they were before… once again.