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Locked down but not out in Italy

Singing from the balconies! One nice thing about this crisis ... solidarity! “Guess you’re not living like a tourist anymore,” was the funny, truthful and somewhat gut-wrenching message of a friend the day the lockdown in Italy began. Today is day 6. My beloved Italia has been hit hard with the COVID19 epidemic. With the second largest elderly population in the world, the epidemic has meant a disproportionate amount of deaths in the country. So though I haven’t been worried about contracting it myself, this isn’t about me or someone like me who, if contracted it would probably have a sucky couple of weeks and then recover. It is about if someone like me contracted it and then spread it to a person with a complicated health history or an elderly person with a weakened immune system. Eerily orderly: Lines for the grocery store, each person one meter apart In a country with no concept (and no physical room really) for personal space, and in a city with reproachable hygie
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Postcard from Jessica in Santa Monica!



Why visit Santa Monica?
As Jessica writes, you can see gorgeous sunsets at any time of the year. With an average of 310 days of sunshine a year, Santa Monica has beautiful days as well as dusks. Santa Monica is located in western Los Angeles county in the southern part of California. It has a Mediterranean type climate with low temperatures hovering around 63 degrees F (17C) in January and high temperatures usually no more than the mid-80s (around 30C) in the summer. So it is not surprising that Santa Monica is known for its beaches.

Along those lines, it is interesting to note that Santa Monica is home to the Original "Muscle Beach." Since the 1930s, the beach just south of Santa Monica Pier has offered workout areas that became popular in the bodybuilding world. Many famous bodybuilders, and actors alike, trained on the workout equipment found at this beach. The workout craze that hit the nation was said to have started here, attributing Muscle Beach as the "Birthplace of the Physical Fitness Boom of the Twentieth Century." Although this area still offers workout and gymnastic equipment, the weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions moved to Venice, California (i.e. Muscle Beach Venice).

Santa Monica is also famous for its Pier, the site of an arcade, an aquarium, street performers and a multitude of rides like the Carousel and a nine-story Ferris Wheel, which incidentally is solar-powered (the only one in the world).

So if you always pictured California as a place for sun and fun, it sounds like Santa Monica with its 310 days of sunshine and its amusement park pier is what you are looking for!

Where are you?
Send me a postcard! Just take a digital photo, write a 2-3 line message and send it to touristliving(at)gmail(dot)com! I'll turn your photo into a postcard and post it on my blog to share your experience of living like a tourist in your own city. (Remember: whether you are living in Duluth or Dubai- I want to hear about the interesting or unique aspects of your city!)
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