The COVID-19 crisis in Italy uprooted life in the country and triggered emergency measures at a point noticed since the war. Some closed photographs of Italy will be hard to forget.
Italy was the first European country affected by coronavirus in February, and the first interruptions in life in general seemed monumental. Controversy erupted between those who were generally determined to live and those who were most careful about the possible effects of the virus. The images of the last days of the Venice Carnival before its cancellation, explain the opposing mentalities of carnival-goers in elaborate masks juxtaposing tourists who are already dressed in a protective mask.
Venice remained in the media spotlight during the first few weeks of the country’s slow closure, as newspapers seem to revel in unprecedented photographs of a “deserted” Venice.
Anger temporarily grew among citizens who described the images as “false” and selective, retaliating by posting their own images of citizens on the streets on social media.
When the country first closed, the environment is one of hope and solidarity in the face of fear. Italy pioneered the flash mob on the balcony, which then took off around the world, as well as the panels decorated with rainbows “everything will be fine”.
The scale of the crisis, however, is temporarily dazzled in Lombardy’s hardest-hit region through disturbing photographs of a Church in Bergamo filled with coffins waiting to be buried.
The death toll increased so much in the region that crematoriums were unable to cope and the army was summoned to carry coffins to other areas.
The overwhelming tension in Italy’s public aptitude formula captured through the symbol of an exhausted nurse collapsed in his office. Elena Pagliarini was photographed after running for 10 hours in a row at a hospital in the northern city of Cremona, and a photo of her taken through a colleague has become a symbol of the overloaded fitness formula.
In late March, Pope Francis visited St. Peter’s abandoned open-air square in Rome to pray for the end of the coronavirus pandemic. In a striking image, the pontiff sits alone in the vast dark square.
When Italy reached its moment of coronavirus blockade, the fitness crisis began to turn into a social and economic emergency. In Naples, baskets gave the impression in the street of supplying food to those in need. The symptoms say, “Those who can put anything, those who can’t, help themselves.”
Over two months on from the beginning of lockdown, Italy began tentatively finding its “new normal”. After protests to bring forward their reopening date, bars, restaurants, hairdressers and most shops pulled up their shutters on May 18.
Now, businesses are having to find solutions to working with the continued social distancing regulations and requirement for face masks to be worn. Bars have separate signposted exit and entrance doors and used tape on the floor to mark where customers should stand at the counter to maintain one meter between them. Some restaurants have erected plexiglass partitions between diners and beaches have been required to space out sun loungers and umbrellas.
At the hairdresser’s, consumers may be asked to put their bag in a plastic container, place their phones in plastic wallets, and give them a new mask to use. Hairdressers wear plastic masks, gloves and visors.
Italy has now opened its borders to other countries, adding some EU and UK states, but, as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned, facilitating blocking measures means learning to fight the virus.
I am a journalist founded in Venice and Scotland. I’ve been writing about my country often since I moved here five years after I graduated.
I am a journalist founded in Venice and Scotland. I have been writing about my country often since I moved here five years ago after graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in art history.