Shame on you, Milano
The floodgates have opened. Milan’s parks are once again teeming with life. Children are playing on the grass, people are walking, biking, running, scooting. Anna Scavuzzo, the city’s Vice Mayor has already warned that if parks continue to be so crowded with people not respecting the rules (play areas are not to be used, for example), the city will have no choice but to close parks again.
My local park has circles in the grass to indicate how people should station themselves to keep the appropriate distance . Yesterday I worked out outside for the first time. I kept to my circle. In Milan the law obligates you to wear a mask at all times, so I had my first experience exercising with a mask, which was challenging indeed. I confess I had to take it off from time to time to take a gulp of air. While I struggled along the police drove by, slowly, surveilling the area.
Restaurants, bars and ice cream parlours are open for take-away and the streets are full of people going out to for this or that, or just to be out. Technically you are not supposed to go out for no reason, and certainly not for the sake of amusement, but it’s practically impossible to control this. Milan’s Navigli neighbourhood (an area with canals very popular for cocktails and nightlife) was crowded yesterday and all of Italy is (rightly) wagging their finger at the Lombardi. Imagine if such a thing had happened in Naples? Everyone would be saying how unruly and primitive and anarchistic the Meridionali*are.
Even Mayor Beppe Sala, who is usually rather benevolent, got mad. In his daily Buongiorno Milano video today he delivered what Italians would call a cazziatone (I would loosely translate this expression as a “big dick slapping”). He gave an ultimatum. If behaviour does not improve, he will either close off the Navigli or shut down restaurants offering takeaway. He reminded citizens that the goal is for people to be able to get back to work and for the economy to get back on track, and that this kind of behaviour only stands in the way of any economic recovery.
Many regions are now pushing to accelerate the reopening of restaurants, stores and hairdressers. In Milan, restaurateurs held a big protest, and several were fined. A few regions (Alto Adige, Friuli) are going against federal recommendations and jumping the gun to reopen everything. Their infection rate is very low. In Lombardy we still had +720 new cases reported yesterday, so we are hardly out of the woods. In addition, the indisputable fact remains that the majority of the population has not been tested. It is highly probable that many people are roaming around who are positive and asymptomatic. To underscore this point: In an effort to get the football season back on track, the Serie A is conducting blanket testing on all teams. Every day new players or staff seem to test positive but are asymptomatic.
Good news for Italy’s practicing Catholics. As of May 18th, they will be able to go back to mass. Strict guidelines have been set for how the mass is to be conducted, including temperature measurement at the entrance. Oddly enough the government has not given a limit on how many people can attend mass at one time, but it has underlined that congregating remains prohibited. Where is the logic here? Also, the priest will have to wear mask and gloves to distribute Communion. Congregants will have to wear a mask too, but I am guessing they’ll have to take it off to slip the host in their mouths. Also, it is forbidden to exchange the sign of peace, not even an elbow bump.
*Italians from southern Italy