Quarantine is over: the capital of Lombardy, the most affected by the pandemic, shocks officials

Now the picture is different: there are people, I even see a mother with a double stroller for twins. I see a man of respectable age in a suit: leaning on a stick, he takes out a pipe looking at the legendary fountain. A Benetton clothing store is open, but almost empty, and several people flock to the ice cream parlor and cafeteria.

However, I don’t see photographers filming the La Dolce Vita symbol. The ritual coins of happiness and return that they throw into the source are also not visible. There are still no tourists in Rome, nor theirs, Italians from other cities, regions or foreigners. Therefore, it is too early to claim that the Eternal City is as it was again on the night of March 10, before plunging into the nightmare of the incredibly strict quarantine.

A similar image is at the heart of world Catholicism in the Vatican. Wednesday morning, on sunny st. I counted about 30 faithful in Peter’s Square. S t. Peter’s Basilica: open, you can go to pray, but only one. No tours, no groups! Before the start of the pandemic, the metal detectors located at the entrance to the colonnade wandered for miles and had to wait more than an hour. There are no queues now. At the detector door, a police officer urges you to put on a protective mask. Access to the Vatican Basilica is now possible as in the old days, when there were no strict anti-terror security protocols, even without stopping.

I look at Saint The facade of Saint Peter’s Basilica, in the cupola, something has changed. The following has changed: Michelangelo’s dome is empty. In the past, tourists constantly gathered on the upper observation deck. By going up the elevator and crossing the 320 steps, they could look at the Vatican Gardens from above. A gendarmerie official warns me: “The dome is closed, you will not be allowed to enter the basement of the basilica.”

Italians: on the joys of everyday life

The country’s media are excited about the “motorized Italy” of normal life. I care what the locals think and how the locals feel after the strict quarantine.

Near St. In Peter’s Square, via della Conciliazione, I speak to a gray passerby dressed in the abbot of a Franciscan monastery. I ask him: “Do you think Rome has already recovered?” But paradise has yet to wait. Now we are traveling on the roads of the refinery. ”

In the famous Piazza Navona, employees of the municipal cleaning service are pulling the grass that has begun to turn yellow between the black basalt pads in the empty square. “Do you feel like the quarantine is over?” I ask the girls leaning against the source of the River Fountain, looking at the sun. “Of course. We can walk where we want, in addition to the boring role: statements of movement. For me, the end of the quarantine is the opportunity to go to the ice cream parlor, an ice cream parlor, and choose your favorite flavor, artigianale gelato, an ice cream made by hand ”, says a university student from La Sapienza.

A little further from the Baroque and Ancient Center, life beats with all its force. Only the masks and tails of passers-by, in the bar, at the flower kiosk, in the butcher shop, remember the accident. “For me, the quarantine will end when the Italian Serie A soccer championship game resumes,” explains a Roman resident under the armpit of La Gazzetta dello Sport, a very slim sports daily. “After all, the demons would grab him. Can the fast-paced championship not end in any way? The start is said to be June 13. He will hardly be able to go to the stadium, he will have to watch television with friends.”

“For me, the quarantine will end when I can stretch out on the beach on the couch and start sunbathing. Because this weekend there are still absurd rules on the coast of Rome: you can walk on the seashore, but not with a sand towel. The body longs for the sun and the sea “, – the pharmacy employee shares her mood.

In Milan: an explosion of aperitif ritual

Roman residents joke that the city will remain standing for the duration of the Colosseum. And here the Milanese cling to the spritzo: Milan will be alive as long as the aperitif ritual is alive. Looking at what happens in the afternoons of the Milan canals, the Navigli area does not appear to be the capital of the most populous region of Lombardy due to the pandemic. Young people flock to the streets with a spritzo in hand. And that means without protective masks. The police cannot punish this violation, since wearing masks outdoors is not mandatory, now or on quarantine days.

The country’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has asked the country’s interior minister to adjust controls. 127,000 people were examined in Italy last Tuesday, but only 409 were fined for ignoring the ban on mass gatherings.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Milan, former commissioner general of EXPO 2015, Giuseppe Sala has taken on a strange, already criticized prevention: he climbed onto the roof of the Duomo of Milan and addressed the golden patron saint of the cathedral tower , Madonnina, to the Virgin Mary: ours. “

While bars and restaurants in Italy have been able to resume operations since the beginning of this week, not everyone is in a hurry. According to the National Restaurant Association, only 6 to 7 out of 10 restaurants have opened, as the conditions for resuming operations are strict and difficult to meet, especially for high-end catering services. Although the government has reduced the social distance to 1 meter, many municipalities have not followed through on their promises to provide free street space for tables.

Leaders in some regions of the country have decided not to follow Roman instructions and to postpone the opening of restaurants. Naples, the pizza capital, for example, has been forced to wait until Vincenzo De Luca, the harsh governor of Campania, who scared townspeople with firecrackers, signed a permit to open 9,000 pizzerias. The epidemiological situation in Naples is stable, with 10 times fewer people infected than in Milan. The Piedmont industrial region is also lagging behind: bars, restaurants, pizzerias, the markets have no green light.

The last quarantine stop is June 3. On that day, there will be no more officials at the country’s railway stations asking who is traveling from one region of the country to another and for what reason. Both the state train company Trenitalia and the private company Italo represent 30 percent. The number of high-speed trains on the most popular Milan-Naples route increased.