Subject: Earthquake

The job I had in Rome in the ’90s came with a three-month notice period, which was no small chore to work through. Toward the end of that time I printed out a small selection of the emails I’d received during my two years there as mementoes of what was easily the weirdest of the workplaces I’ve known. The one shown above includes some earthquake safety advice, which, if I recall correctly, arrived the day after a somewhat significant tremor, which I think would have been one of the aftershocks (magnitude 5.6) following the Umbria and Marche earthquake of Sept. 26th ‘97.

There was one earthquake that occurred while I was in that office whose effects I specifically recall, though I’m not sure if it was the one that gave rise to the email. The ground wobbled for several seconds; coats swayed on coat-stands; water sloshed in a fish-tank in an office across the corridor; a soprano voice exclaimed «Dio mio!» nearby. It was strong enough for a newbie like me to feel a certain frisson; but by no means severe enough to be frightening. The last earthquake I experienced was even less spectacular: “Britain reacts to an ‘underwhelming’ earthquake” ran one BBC News headline. At home reading a book on a Saturday afternoon there was a noise as if something very heavy had fallen over some distance away. Only later did I learn it was a magnitude 4.4 tremor centred about 40 miles to the west.