Hello everyone, you're listening to the Earful Tower, season 8, talking all about Paris,

lockdown and beyond. Before we even get into today's topic, I just wanted to say thank you

because I just got an email that said, apparently there are 850,000 podcasts in the world.

I don't mean episodes, I mean podcasts. And you guys chose to listen to this one.

So thank you. Thanks for hanging around. Thanks for listening. Today's a pretty interesting episode.

It's with an Australian journalist Joe McKenna. She's a freelance journalist in Rome.

And we don't know each other, but we've back and

forth for, I mean, I don't know, a couple of years actually seeming we've both sort of been

in the foreign correspondent Australian in Europe, capital city world. And when I put an Instagram

post up the other day saying that I'd be doing lockdown

podcast and asking for guest ideas, she said, why don't you call me? And I thought that's a

fantastic idea. I thought it'd be interesting to hear what it's like in Italy, which as we talk

about an episode is about a week ahead of Paris, where it comes to the coronavirus and how it's been spreading

and probably about two weeks ahead of places like America and Australia. So it's kind of a chance

to hear what maybe we're in for, how people are dealing with it, how they're coping from someone

who's on the ground. But we also took the chance, well, I took the chance to

ask a bit about life in Italy in general and Rome because I'm pretty interested in it. I thought

it made for cool conversation. And just like David in the last episode, Joe is a very positive

person, so it was a delight to talk to her. But first, before we get into it, a few facts.

She mentions a fine of 206 euros. To put that in perspective, that's 223 US dollars or 374 Australian dollars. And the other

thing is, I couldn't pronounce it. It's written in front of me now. Trasteeverre.

That is the name of the place in Rome where Joe is speaking from.

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