“Before her, she saw a tree-lined road – and the walled boundary of the River Tiber. She crossed the road and stood with the bowing branches of the trees that lined the street almost touching her shoulders like inquisitive fingers. Beneath the dry, green canopy, she watched a small procession of canoes waddle against the river’s strong current. Each canoe had spread out behind it in the wind a rainbow-coloured flag that bore the word PACE. She had seen the word fluttering from white cloths slung from the windows of buildings, written across T-shirts worn by students. It was a peace protest against the war – the war that would not go away. She watched the canoes disappear round the bend in the river – such a tiny but significant protest against a war machine that seemed to be engulfing the world.”

ROME ALONE