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All Should Feel Right With the World, But It Doesn't

Jamie Dettmer

   ROME - A young mother painstakingly applies disinfectant cloths to
   clean meticulously the baby rattles for her gurgling blue-eyed infant
   bouncing happily on her lap.

   This is normally a wet and cold season in Lazio, but this year there
   have been many days of blue skies and warm temperatures. Unless you are
   a farmer praying for more seasonal rain, all should feel right with the
   world.

   But it doesn't.

   We are the only ones sitting outside a usually bustling piazza bar on
   the outskirts of Rome sipping mid-morning coffees -- and, in my case,
   nibbling on a ciambella cake.

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