Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, who had COVID-19, said the crash block had made him feel “humiliated and offended” by depriving him of his freedom of coming and going as he pleased.
Bocelli spoke on a panel Monday at a Senate convention hall, where he featured right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini, who denounced the government’s strict measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
The singer’s announcement in May that he had recovered from the virus came weeks after his Easter Sunday at Milan’s empty cathedral.
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At the time, Bocelli said that when he found out on March 10 that he had tested positive, just as the country was going to isolate himself, “I threw myself into the pool, I felt good” and I only had a mild fever. He was referring to a personal pool in his residence, as the public gym pools were closed at the time.
Bocelli said at the Senate convention that he was not satisfied with the fact that he could not leave his home even though he had “not committed any crime” and revealed, without offering details, that he had violated the lockdown restriction.
At the height of confinement, Italians can only leave their homes to go to work, walk dogs or buy food or medicine.
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Dismayed, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri, said Tuesday that Bocelli “may need to explain the inconvenience of each and every Italian who, due to the lockdown, stayed at home.”
“I wouldn’t have said those words, but I think you can do it one way or another,” Sileri added.