During the national lockdown from March to May 2020, Italians stayed home. We went outside, alone and with duly completed official forms, only for food, medicine, and emergencies. To make do with the confinement, many Italians rediscovered their rooftops.
While some buildings have gorgeous terraces filled with seating and plants, a vast majority of Italian apartments have simple unadorned rooftops that are communally open to hang out laundry and not much else.
The lockdown changed how we saw our rooftops. Suddenly they became safe spaces and places where we could be out in the open air without breaking any social distancing rules. However, Vittoria Oliveri (13 years old) and Carola Pessina (11 years old), took this to the next level when they filmed themselves playing tennis across their terraces.
The girls live in Liguria and both attend the same tennis center. When their coach encouraged all the children to keep running daily drills, the friends came up with the idea to play together while staying apart.
They lobbed the ball from roof to roof, a distance of 50 feet (15 meters), and soon became viral video sensations.
As they hit the ball back and forth, they discuss their favorite tennis players. They agree that Roger Federer is the bee’s knees.
So of course, this video of Swiss tennis champion Federer surprising the girls for a terrace tennis match is a bit of a tear-jerker.
In case you missed the original Italian terrace tennis video, you can see it below:
