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Italians are better known for the desire to live than for rules, regulations and discipline. In the summer of Corona 2020 I will experience a whole new side there. Some Germans could learn a little.
I just arrived from Italy. After much deliberation and deliberation, I went on vacation there, on Lake Garda, in the middle of the old epicenter of Corona de Europa. My dear Italians, who are not exactly known for abiding by the rules.
Mask protection and distance rules in Italy: How does it work in the country of Dolce Vita and joyous indiscipline, where the red light does not mean that you stop with your Alfa? What will it be like there in the midst of the Corona crisis?
The new discipline of the Italians
It was the biggest surprise that I have experienced in all my trips to Italy: I experience the entire region around Lake Garda in a discipline that I have never seen before. On the Torri del Benaco ferry, every passenger has a fever on the dock. People queue quietly and patiently with masks on. Automatic sanitizer dispensers are available in front of local stores for use prior to each entry.
Gargnano on Lake Garda: The attractive mix of Alpine and Mediterranean landscapes still makes the region a place of longing for many German tourists. (Source: Jonas Kruse / AFP)
Before I get my slushie at the Garda ice cream parlor, I have to let my sweet tooth out and put the mouth and nose protection on properly. I do that before entering anyway, of course. In contrast to a German tourist in a supermarket. He wants to convince the security clerk in the German-Italian language mix, gesturing wildly, that he is exempted from the mask requirement by means of a medical certificate. The man looks at her indifferently and throws her away.
Do not shop without a mask. It’s that simple in Italy right now. Bravo! I’m excited and think, why isn’t that possible in Germany? Why do we have rules there that no one follows?
Back in Berlin: the shock
When I return to Berlin after a two-week vacation with the most disciplined Italians I have ever seen, I am amazed.
About 50 people wait for their train on the S-Bahn platform. Two-thirds have mouth guards hanging below the chin or not on the face. It looks a little better on the train, just a third ride with the mask under the nose. Although there is an obligation and a fine for contempt. But that doesn’t matter, since there is no one to control. I don’t even want to talk about the minimum unobservable distance, the compartment is full.
Berlin airport staff ignore mask requirement
I experienced the peak of German ignorance and arrogance two weeks earlier when I took off from Berlin-Tegel: while passengers are warned every 15 minutes to comply with the mask requirement, during security check I meet employees wearing protection for the mouth and nose as an annoying accessory to loosen under the chin.
I’m pissed off and ask the colleague sending me if there is no longer a mask requirement here. With the ignorant and arrogant tone often found in Berlin, she replies: “Yes, yes … everything will be fine, we can handle it.” By the way, she’s not the only colleague who doesn’t adhere to Corona’s rules and thinks she can override them.
Why is a woman who has daily contact with thousands of travelers from all over the world and cannot wear a mask withdraw from circulation? In Italy, its use at the airport would be unthinkable.
Germany just loved it
What has to happen to these ignorant people to make it clear to them how antisocial they are? Germany has so far been very lucky in the corona pandemic. Mainly because we reacted to the virus with measures a few weeks earlier than our neighbors earlier this year.
We do not have to pretend that Germany has done something particularly good or that we are superior to others. We were lucky that so far with 9,423 people, comparatively few have died from the consequences of the coronavirus. Italy was not so lucky. The virus got here before. Families there have so far suffered 35,758 corona deaths.
In some regions, deaths from corona in almost all places
In northern Italy, the corona virus has spread in the three regions around Lake Garda like almost nowhere in Europe: in the north of Trentino-South Tyrol, in the west of Lombardy and in the east of Veneto.
Outwardly, the tracks, apart from some tourists, are hardly visible to me as a visitor in September. The footprints that Corona has left on this beautiful piece of land are much deeper. The owner of our vacation home tells us that almost all families were affected by the virus. There were crown deaths in almost every place, he himself lost his father. I would never dream of going shopping without a mask.
Fever measurement in the supermarket: In Italy, visitors to supermarkets in 2020 will be greeted in many places by security personnel with scanners. (Source: Marco Passaro / Picture Alliance)
Italy has learned its lesson
Those who refuse to govern, such as the employee at the Tegeler security checkpoint or the Berlin S-Bahn, would not reach a subway from Italy. There, in spring, people had to give up for weeks everything that belonged to the lifestyle that many Germans make pilgrimage to Italy year after year: no aperitif with friends, no big family dinners, no sunbathing on the Lido, no fashion shows.
Instead: closed regions, curfews and a paralyzed public life. All of Italy was quarantined. We have never seen such photos of the country where lemons bloom: empty streets in Rome and Milan, endless lines of coffins in Bergamo and the cries for help of doctors in the hospitals of the region, I will not soon forget them.
Bravo Italy! Learning from the traumatized country
The respect of Italians for the coronavirus is also enormous for this experience. Like your discipline. The enemy is not the government, the media, or an American billionaire. The enemy is the corona virus and in times of need you fight in unison and collectively. “Responsabilità” has been a word that has been heard often in Italy for the last six months. Italians have taken responsibility in an exemplary way.
The ignorant of the corona in this country, who believe that the corona virus is none of their concern or does not exist, can learn a lot from the so often ridiculed Italians. Of his will to defeat the virus. And about the solidarity of observing the rules together to protect yourself and others.
Europe before autumn: the pandemic is still here
The situation of the crown is critical in Europe. The number of cases continues to rise almost everywhere. It is dramatic in France and Spain. The situation there is already worse than in March for the first wave. There are now heavy restrictions across Europe. Restaurant closing hours in France, military operations in Great Britain and cancellation of après-ski parties in Austria. Measures to contain the pandemic will tighten significantly on the continent. In Italy, on the other hand, the figures remain low.
It is similar in Germany, still. The routes of transmission of the virus are currently in the private sector – at celebrations, family gatherings, weddings and parties – a problem that we can all combat. But this includes something that many in Germany currently lack: “Responsabilità”.
