Italy has emerged from an unprecedented, prolonged period of lockdown. During the two months in which the Country was effectively \u201cshut down\u201d, our urban landscape has changed more than we could imagine. Not that it won\u2019t go back to something closely resembling our old idea of \u201cnormal\u201d, but we still think it is interesting to reflect on what nature would look like if the human presence wasn\u2019t so overpowering and ubiquitous. And, we hope, to incite further investigation into how we can use these historically unique circumstances to reduce our footprint on the planet, as we rebuild our world<\/strong><\/a> after this pandemic. We have all seen the tweets, Instagram posts, and local blog posts. Hares milling about calmly in a deserted park in Milan, dolphins swimming happily in the harbours of Trieste and Cagliari. Golf courses in Sardinia, empty of players, playing host to perplexed deer, as families of Boars venture into the city centre and badgers run undisturbed through the streets of Florence. And then, of course, there are the swans, gliding majestically along the Navigli in Milan and the canals in Venice, surrounded by schools of tiny fish that nobody in living memory has ever seen in the busy waters of either city. And yes, the voice of reason tells us that the water is simply clearer because the sand on the bottom of the canals is not being stirred by the coming and going of boats or gondolas and that it would take way longer than a couple of months of inactivity for that same water to be considered \u201cclean\u201d, but the impact of these images is huge nonetheless.
\n<\/p>\nHistory in tweets and photos<\/h3>\n
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