Life in Italy’s COVID19 Quarantine

After Boris Johnson’s speech yesterday, many of us around the UK are wondering whether the right decision has been made around corona virus / COVID19. Should we be following Italy and other countries across Europe in locking down our cities, banning mass gatherings and closing schools, universities and colleges? Are we being too complacent? Are such extreme measures going to help control the spread of COVID19 in the UK, or is it a case of being led my science and acting at the right time – a fine balance between acting too soon or too little too late?!

My friend Lou lives in Milan; a country who is locked down completely, and has kindly shared her story of life inside the Lombardia region of Italy during their national corona quarantine. Her honest and open story of life in Milan provides some real insight of what life is really like when the corona virus lock down hits. Whether or not this is soon to follow in the UK isn’t yet clear!

Living in Milan during COVID19 outbreak

So, we have just had an encounter after going out for the first time in two days that kind of sums up the absurdity of the situation in Italy at the moment. We have just ventured out after 48 hours cooped up in the house. I’m so sick of being in the same four walls. I’m working at home (I am a teacher doing classes online, god help me!!) and with a 2 year old at home and feel like I’m slowly going mad.

We have collected toilet rolls to make a homemade snake, we are collecting bottle tops to make a flower – all of this due to the fact that my two year old has been sent homework from his nursery – a desperate attempt to keep life as normal as possible; but we are bored. Anyway, I digress….

Parks are closed…

We ventured outside and how wonderful it was! 19 degrees, sunshine and bright blue sky. A beautiful Italian Spring. It seems so sad to all be inside on a day like today. In fact, it is a day when you would be excited to be outside and you would normally find a busy and bustling piazza, bars open, everyone sat outside enjoying aperitivo.

But not today. Today, they decided that all public parks should be shut. This has been my absolute salvation with my two year old, a place where we could cling on to a bit of normality. But not anymore – no more swings!

Keeping 1 metre apart

We walked down the street to the nearest supermarket, hoping to be able to pick up some peanut butter. For some reason that is the only thing we haven’t been able to get in the last two weeks. There was an enormous queue outside and everyone was standing the obligatory 1m distance away, all in masks. They were allowing people in one at a time. Yes, you heard me, ONE at a time. Knock that on the head then! Waiting in that with a two year old would be virtually impossible!

We then continued to walk for a bit up towards the park, everything we saw on the way was shut and we saw very few people, just dog walkers and people with small children like us. We finally got to the post office; part of the reason for this trip, and it was shut, until further notice. The sign below was a local salon – which had closed as they couldn’t guarantee being a metre apart. The hashtag says #andratuttobene – which means “Everything will be ok”

We found a tabacchi, which in English is like a little newsagents, and joined the 1m apart queue. We were told by a man outside they probably wouldn’t let us in without masks. We actually haven’t been able to buy masks, they are sold out everywhere and you have probably seen on the news that they are selling them on Amazon for ridiculous amounts. I’m not 100% sure Italy has learnt how to wear them properly either.

This man, we got chatting too, has just come out of hospital where he said he saw terrible things due to this disease and that we should be wearing our masks. We were given a bit of a guilt trip but were eventually allowed in anyway and got the stamp. All this effort for a stamp! We were walking down the road afterwards and saw this same man, driving off in his car, mask pulled down and smoking a cigar, window closed!! There is the contradiction everyone! Something this wonderful country is so famous for! Maybe this is a reason for Italy to stop smoking? I do not want to go down another avenue here, let’s talk about Coronavirus, but Italy is potentially so affected because 80% of the population smoke and they have the oldest population in Europe. This is another reason why they have to be so careful. I have lived in Milan for the past 10 years and have never experienced anything like this. And I remember bird flu and sars. This is honestly a disaster.

Closing the Lombardi Region

Corona virus first started getting real for us when we finished school for February half term. There were about 10 cases in a village quite nearby called Lodi. My school were hearing from the authorities and they said they were monitoring the situation. Throughout the whole of half term things went from bad to worse. We were meant to be going to Florence for my partners 40th. In the space of a week we cancelled the trip, losing money in the train and the hotel. But too scared that if we went, we wouldn’t be allowed back into Lombardia, the state where we live. The advice at this stage was to only travel if necessary and we were hearing of new cases everyday. The more we watched the news, the more paranoia set in.

Last week on Friday, exactly a week ago, the government communicated that they were closing 10 main cities and the whole state of Lombardia. Which meant we couldn’t travel to other states and we were advised to travel much less.

It became a even more ‘real’ for me when last Sunday, less than a week ago we went out for lunch with some friends. He is a gym instructor and has lost his job. All the gyms are closed. She works in Ikea, they closed for the first time in 10 years last week. We all sat down for lunch and had to sit on separate tables (at least a metre apart) and there were 10 people in the restaurant. Normally on a Sunday there would be many more. On Sunday evening, they communicated not to leave your house unless absolutely necessary. All shops would be shut, all bars, all public services, libraries, museums etc. It’s like nothing I’ve experienced before.

Italy is adapting…

Thankfully I don’t feel honestly very cut off (yet at least!) as luckily we have technology to get us through this.

But when you go outside, it feels extremely strange. Like that feeling on Christmas Day when you go out for ‘that’ walk to burn off dinner and there is hardly anyone about and everything is shut.

Another problem we have here is that Italy is quite a traditional country. It’s hard to catch up with latest technology and to work from home. It’s not the done thing here. There isn’t even many part time jobs (I should know, I’ve been asking for the last 3 years!) and people are not used to online banking, doing their weekly food shop online or paying bills online. It’s just not done. So people are adapting and having to adapt very quickly.

The hospitals, they are overrun with people who have existing lung problems that have now caught this disease. Every single day we see ambulances going past our house with doctors and paramedics dressed in plastic outer clothing, gloves and face masks. It’s scary how fast things have changed.

For now, our prime minister is doing, I think, a good job. He’s talking to the people very calmly and trying to allay any fears. He is also optimistic that this will all be over by April 3rd, and I really hope the extreme actions the national has taken help that to happen. I really hope so. There have been no new cases in Codogno, the epicentre of the outbreak. So that gives us hope. Andrà tutto bene! Forza Italia.

 

Thank you Lou for sharing your experience. #andratuttobene

For more information on the coronavirus and how it is affecting mental health, check out BetterHelp.com