The Dawn of Phase Two

Tomorrow is the day when Italy, after 56 days of national lock down, steps from Phase 1 to Phase 2.  

Italian prime minister Conte told Italians today : “From tomorrow we begin to live with the virus, and our civic responsibility will be ever more important.” 

Italy yesterday had the lowest fatality rate in one month, 174 persons.

Tomorrow 4.4 million Italians are going back to work.

Most Italians have not been on a bus, tram, train or metro for close to two months. Civil Protection head Angelo Conte announced that in Phase Two transport and mobility risks should offer no concern but that “everyone must only move in cases of real need and they must respect the distancing between people. If everyone respects the hygiene rules and avoids gatherings we will manage to govern the situation”. 

Italians who were not in their legal place of residence at the time lockdown began may now return home but they may not then go back to the region that they set off from. Milan is called the second city of Puglia, and there will be considerable movement south beginning on May 4 — and to all of the regions of the Italian south.

Masses and weddings are still not celebrated; small funerals may now take place. Face mask use is required when two persons who do not cohabitate are together. And the same face mask rules that govern adults are applicable to all children from over age six.

To the joy of children and everyone I know, parks will be open again. No longer will dogs (heroes of the last weeks) only chase balls within their own four walls.

There is much to celebrate, but many friends all across the country are conflicted. One Roman friend is overjoyed to be seeing her parents and dog for the first time in two months.  Another looks forward to reuniting with his sister. Another counts the hours till he can be with his brother.  Mariagrazia, our neighbor, is quite ecstatic to be wandering the streets of Rome and which she has missed so much.

At the same time, the European country that has suffered through the longest lockdown is not back to normal.

Unless their legal residence is an another region, Italians can still not leave their regions. Schools and many businesses are still closed; hairdressers remain shuttered. Restaurants, cafes, pizzerie and similar are not (by pre-virus standards) fully functional although they may now both deliver and offer takeaway. Italians tomorrow for the first time in weeks can have their first espresso or cappuccino from the neighborhood bar — in the form of course of take-out only. (And also of course with nightmare environmental consequences if the caffe’ is served in styrofoam.)

Italy-wide, many restaurants have risen to the challenge of delivery, meeting it with extraordinary resiliency and style. I have been especially moved by Marigold, a Rome restaurant owned by friends Sophie and Domenico. They with endless care and ingenuity continue to cook superbly. Sophie and Domenico are unwavering in their commitment to sustainable, local Slow Food and to responsible packaging, and have delighted Romans all across town with specially curated “At Home” lock down meals.

It will be some time still until restaurants will actually reopen.

It is fiendishly difficult to fathom how an Italian restaurant can offer social distancing and yet be profitable. 

Come May 4, my friends who are eager to see if their Tuscan country house is alright still cannot go up from Rome to see it. But their Tuscan farmer-gardener can tomorrow report back to work, which will provide them with peace of mind. “Spring there must be gorgeous”, reports my friend wistfully.

Paola, our superb guide in Lucca, is a runner and she lives for the outdoors.  She is counting the minutes until she can be back on the city walls, Lucca’s beloved emblem, a comforting ribbon of green and serenity.  It will change her life, I think, to return to her walls.

Tonight several friends called me and wrote me with their concerns :

Elena : “Spring has arrived, and it is logical that already there is chomping at the bit to get out. That’s fine as long as it done the right way. Even though we are today still in Phase One and people are jumping the gun.  We shall see if “Andra’ Tutto Bene” is accurate or not.”  

Since the pandemic began, handmade children’s signs reading “Andra’ Tutto Bene” have appeared everywhere, reassuring us that “all will be well”, adopted as the civic-boosting national motto.

Lorenzo : “Phase One was easier.  The national ordinances were unequivocal and there was almost no space for interpretations.  You stayed home.  Period.  Fear was the catalyst and we obeyed, amazing in a population that historically is not self discipled.  We surprised everyone and ourselves by observing the rules.  Now however it is the individual’s turn. There will be great diversity now between our individual circumstances.  This is where the danger lies.  We must be intelligent and we must be ethical.  We must.”

Lucy: “I have a terrible feeling that there will be a flare-up in the south especially if they are not careful about quarantining returning residents.  I imagine a lot of students studying in the north will come home to the south.  

We won’t really know anything until 2-3 weeks from now when new contagions will be evident. I’m going nowhere except to the market until then. And I am anxiously awaiting June 3 or soon thereafter for the hairdresser and manicure.”

Nanni  : “When I went shopping last night there were far too many people out and lots were without masks. There was not consistent social distancing.  Still, I am hopeful that most people will, starting tomorrow, take social distancing and mask rules seriously. I pray that they will.  The return to where we were is unthinkable.”

One of my passions in these last weeks, though one much tinged with melancholy, has been visiting via Webcam the squares I love most in Italy.  I have spent hours listening to swifts swooping over Piazza di Spagna and watched hundreds of dogs drinking from (and sometimes peeing against) the same nasone fountain in Campo de’ Fiori that, since my babyhood, has quenched my thirst.

I’ve received solace from the bells of countless cathedrals and smaller churches in regions up and down the country. Today however in my webcam visits I was astounded by the number of children playing in Piazza Navona, and the quantity of Romans enjoying temperatures in the upper 70s, so clearly savoring a little taste of what tomorrow might being.  At noon, every bench was taken. Three weeks ago at the same time, the square was close to empty.

I was accustomed to weeks of silence in this sublime oval piazza. Today it resounded with the barks of excited dogs, the calls of children, and hummed with conversation.  Bicycles sailed by.  The vigili who normally circle the piazza had clearly moved away to the far ends of the square to allow for the volume of Romans today.  

I asked Giocondo from Furore (Amalfi) how he envisioned things would go from tomorrow onwards.  “I hope that we have all learned something from this experience.  I hope that we will all behave with maturity and civility. I have my doubts.  Looking into the future, my primary consideration is how I can contribute to a better world.”

Andra’ Tutto Bene.  May it be.