''I love the winter in Provincetown," says Dorothy Antczak, educational coordinator at the Fine Arts Work Center. ''This is my favorite time of year because there's nobody around. You can take a walk on the beach and not see a soul. But if you don't want the solitude, you can go downtown and you know every person you pass on the street."
Paul Fanizzi, who owns Fanizzi's by the Sea restaurant, is happiest when it's busiest -- and that means summer.
''But I like it as a respite," he says of the off-season.
Fanizzi keeps the restaurant open year round, and though business is quieter, ''You can enjoy the time a little more, get to talk to people. A lot of people who are too busy working in the summer show up this time of year. You get to know a lot of people's names, and there are people who come in every day."
I spent my first 10 years here in Provincetown, and it's still the place I like best in winter. Even on the bleakest afternoon, you can find an ''open" sign, whether for a cup of coffee in one of a handful of restaurants, or overstocked goods at Marine Specialties. At night, you can wander the narrow, empty streets, pass the lighted windows of houses, and wonder what kinds of lives are unfolding inside. The town has always seemed more romantic this time of year, more open to the imagination, with the secrets of its existence just out of sight.
Something has changed in Provincetown the last few winters, though. It is at once both quieter and more alive. For example, many Provincetown year-rounders think the streets are emptier than they were even a few years ago.
''I think there are more coyotes than people now where we live," says Mike Wright, who has lived here 20 years. For several years, Wright ran a guesthouse in town; now she works for the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. ''It's much quieter, which I like because I'm an artist and my partner's a poet. But it's unnerving to take a walk down our street. There used to be a lot of year-rounders. Now people are just here in summer."
