In the bustling streets of Arezzo, once adorned with the iconic newspaper stands that punctuated daily life, an eerie silence now lingers. These hallowed spots, where locals gathered for their morning espresso and the day’s headlines, are vanishing. The disappearance of these beloved fixtures not only marks a shift in the Italian cityscape but also raises poignant questions about the future of an age-old tradition—reading. As we witness the waning presence of newspaper stands, are we also witnessing the decline of an art form?

My husband Sam still relies heavily on these newsstands, at least the few that have not gone extinct. He reads the Economist, the Financial Times, Il Foglio and La Stampa and I often find myself picking up one of his papers, it usually lands on my daily chore list. Most bars in Arezzo will have the local papers decorating tables for the locals to skim through while they have a quick brioche and cappuccino. 

During the Pandemic and after the wars breaking out in Ukraine and Gaza, Sam would often get caught in a YouTube wormhole trying to find his way through oodles of algorithms. As we all know, as soon as you type in your search engine it strictly sends you into a vast sea of one-sided information. Reading the newspaper became a way to protect his sanity. If you really want to know something then you have to sit and read an article. 

In Italian, an edicola is a  ‘newsstand’.  Last year Prada bought the edicola by my office for €100,000. to preserve the cultural tradition and keep it intact despite our ‘advances’ in the digital age. 

I often see small children, adolescents, and adults walking around on their screens with no shame. Actually, it is rare to see anyone out in public without their cell phones. Now that it is tourist season I’m starting to see people with those necklaces that hold their phones. It must be a solution to avoid digging in their bags…? We have several bookstores in Arezzo and I often wonder how they stay in business due to everyone’s substantial dependance to their screens. Are Sam and I considered old school? We order used books offline and are giddy when we receive the package. I remember when old school meant going to the bookstore. We are trying to raising our kids to enjoy books too. Sam and I often leave the house with a book.

Recently I spoke to some study abroad students and they explained and showed me what a ‘video essay’ was. I was shocked and had the same sensation as when my mother-in-law showed my children other children playing with toys on YouTube. UMMM they have toys! Let them play with their ACTUAL toys instead of giving them your screen and having them watch videos of children playing with toys! Sometimes I feel like I’m in the ‘Twilight Zone’ or a bad episode of ‘Black Mirror’. Whatever happened to good ol’ reading a tangible, great-smelling book? Has everyone abandoned ship and no longer reads the paper or books?! What book have you read lately? What was a book that has changed you? If you had an unlimited supply of the same book you could gift to all of the people you love, what would it be? 

Perhaps I am nostalgic for the times when screens weren’t a part of daily life.