Yesterday, for the first time since the middle of February (!), I met with my card-playing girlfriends. I mean, we’re in touch on a daily basis…text messages and so on, but I’ve seen only one of these friends in the flesh since February.

Anyway, we had a lovely visit, complete with tea and birthday cake made by yours truly, but it felt really surreal. No hugging, no kissing, no close contact. For Italians, this is MOST unusual…

In addition to keeping our distance, we all wore our surgical face masks…sitting in our friend’s living room.

Weird…really weird.

But…necessary, of course.