2020

I do not know her name, or the country from which she emigrated—Perhaps Turkey, Kosovo or Albania. We did not share a common language, and I could only wonder at the circumstances that led this lady to stake a spot, every day, on one of the most popular shopping streets of an affluent northern Italian city. Seated on the sidewalk with her back to the wall of a Renaissance building, she seems unaware of the splendid history and art that attracts visitors. She receives few donations, but seems serenely resigned to her place in this unfamiliar world, which flows past as she reigns there, majestic in her poverty and solitude.