Chiuso Per Ferie

The greengrocer, the cobbler, the tabaccheria, the one good bar and the one bad bar have all closed until the twenty-fifth. There was no meeting. There has never been a meeting. And yet every year the same eleven signs go up within about four days of one another, in the same handwriting-adjacent style, with the same slightly emotional wording.

The appointment took four months to obtain. The closure was announced by a printed sheet on a door, dated the previous week, referring to a decision taken in June. The new date is in October, which is nine days after the document she is renewing expires, a fact the printed sheet did not address.