The wounds of Rome that not even the noise can hide

The disappearance of silence was the first real sign of change. For fourteen months, except for a few parentheses, sounds rose from the streets of Rome that the metropolitan ears were not accustomed to. Screeching tires of sporadic cars, voices of even more sparse passers-by, the stabbing buzzer of traffic lights for the blind, the rustle of delivery bicycles, barking of locked dogs, barking of seagulls, ambulance sirens.