Italy Is Dead To Us, Unless The Old Woman On The Bus Is Still Alive

Crowded Venice, Italy in the summer of 2019. (Photos by Sarah Paatz, a Canadian tourist)

I wonder if the woman on the bus is still alive. The first time I saw her, she had thin, immaculately combed hair that brushed against her tiny shoulders as her balance wobbled.

Sitting on a hard plastic red chair, she looked out the window. Her faded brown eyes searched the beautiful Venetian sky, not a cloud in sight. Only, she didn’t appear to…