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Much of life in Italy takes place in shared outdoor spaces. From business to social life, religion to politics, Italians have been conducting their affairs in public for two millennia and more. In the past months, all this came to an abrupt halt. A people famed for their evening passeggiata in the piazza, for their outdoor café culture, for their flamboyant appropriation of their town centres for public and private business, have been confined to their homes. As Italy takes its first steps back outside into its magnificent shared spaces, ‘Italy Outdoors’ takes us on a journey around the culture and history of what has always been an exuberantly public nation.

In this essay, writer Polly Coles begins with the walls of Genoa, believed by some to be the second longest in the world, after the Great Wall of China.

Written and read by Polly Coles
Produced by Melanie Harris of Sparklab Productions