Playing tennis on separate rooftops in Italy shows quarantine sports have leveled up

In Italy, there is a national quarantine that has been in place since early March, but that doesn’t mean athletes can’t find ways to keep their games at a high level of play.

So high, in fact, they are playing from the rooftops.

Social distancing is an absolute reality during the Covid-19 pandemic, so these two very talented women in Finale Ligure, Italy, are making sure to keep enough distance between them to remain safe from exposure to the virus. That’s great! But, holy smokes, they must be far more confident in their ability to run back and forth on a roof while watching a ball flying between them than I could ever be. By the second or third swing (who am I kidding — probably the first swing), I would have plummeted to my death, slapping onto the cement below with earth-shattering force and a whole lot of unsightly oozing. At the very least I would end up somehow impaling myself on those rooftop vents (don’t ask how, I’m just talented in that way).

That’s one of the reasons I find this display to be so impressive.

The other is the fact they manage to keep a pretty decent volley going. I have zero doubt there were more than a few tennis balls lost to the streets of the Gulf of Genoa commune. There are probably a few happy stray dogs playing with their new favorite toys.

Hopefully that’s the extent of misplaced volleys and there aren’t a couple shattered windows. If I were trying to hit a tennis ball across separate rooftops like that, there definitely would be a lot of broken things in the process (again, most likely my skeleton and internal organs).