A day for displaced people. A large portion of the population of Viterbo shared this condition yesterday. In fact, around 36 thousand people had to leave their homes by 9am because they were located within the red zone, the area to be evacuated within a radius of 1400 meters from the place where it was found last 20 March in Via Alcide De Gasperi.
The drizzly and windy day discouraged many of the displaced from going to the sea or lakes. Many people, especially residents in the centre, who resorted to the “tour” of the shopping centres, in a sort of pilgrimage that always returned to the starting point while waiting for the siren to signal them to be able to return home. The timetable was almost the same for all those who did not want or were unable to leave Viterbo. First breakfast in one of the bars open outside the off limits area, then a tour of the shops and maybe some shopping, then the lunch break. At refreshment points inside shopping centres. With his gaze constantly running at the clock and with time seeming to expand, and minutes as long as hours. And on the face the bewildered expression of someone who doesn’t know what to invent to get through
And the places of large-scale distribution, rather than the realm of shopping, for the six and a half hours in which people were forced to stay away from home – from 9am to 3.30pm -, transformed into centers of aggregation and sociality. An opportunity to meet again and talk to people we perhaps hadn’t seen for a while. But also to make new acquaintances and discover the pleasure of talking to strangers. And not just bomb day. Which perhaps served as an introduction to then find ourselves talking about various topics.
However, always with his eyes glued to his watch and smartphone for updates on the defusing. Then finally the “free everyone”. At 3.30pm the long-awaited announcement was made on the Municipality website: gates open. The tension dissolves, you say goodbye to the people he was talking to with the feeling of having shared an adventure. Then with a sigh of relief, and a thought for the bomb squad who worked quickly and in an extremely professional manner, he finally goes home. The long day of the bomb is already part of the anecdotes to be told as an experience.
