Dispatches from a Johnstonian quarantined in Italy

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Editor’s note: Vivian Weaver is a 1971 graduate of Johnston High School. She moved to Rome in 1979. The following are her thoughts and observations from inside one of the nations hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

How our lives changed

It was the evening of Saturday, 22 February, when Prime Minister Conte went on TV to talk about the Coronavirus, and since then nothing has been the same. In two weeks, we went from “keeping a distance” to total quarantine.

The first breakouts were in the north. On the 22nd, those areas were quarantined, and over the following weeks, the number of new cases slowed to almost nothing. Then suddenly, new case numbers jumped off the charts.

The reason was because people in and around Milan (Lombardy) were not respecting the quarantine rules. On TV, we saw scenes of crowded Metros, especially of young people, who think they are immune or are strong and will survive. Maybe they will survive, but their grandparents? What can I say, people are stupid and selfish.

In Rome, the Tram that passes in front of our house is mostly empty. Below is a photo of the street below my apartment. Viale Trastevere is a main road and at 6:30 pm, the height of rush hour, it would normally be heavy with traffic.

If people ignore the quarantine, the spread of the virus will never end, so the government toughened the rules and it is now a penal crime to go out without a very specific reason, like buying food. We downloaded the form that we need to present in case we are stopped by the police, which I doubt as I only go to buy groceries (with a shopping cart) or take out the trash. The hardest part of a quarantine is not being able to go anywhere, and we actually joked with our neighbors about borrowing their dog so as to have a legal reason to go for a walk.

It’s a very strange time and very interesting how two weeks ago, at the start of the quarantine, it felt surreal to go outdoors in a city of five million and not have any traffic or see many people. More interesting was how quickly the surreal became normal.

Italians singing together

An American friend wrote saying she heard that Italian neighborhoods were singing together.

It’s true, so let me tell you about our Italian neighborhood singing together.

It started at the end of our first week in quarantine, and the announcements to do this came through social media. Our building led the way in our neighborhood as three young people brought their loud speakers and other equipment to the roof terrace.

Behind our building is the Tiber River, but in front, and all along Viale Trastevere, there are apartment buildings going up to the Gianicolo Hill. (I’ve attached a photo.)

Our building is in the shape of a giant G, but more squared. Eight stories high, and with 88 three- and four-bedroom apartments, it’s about the size of four or five basketball courts. So even though we were many people on the terrace, there was plenty of room to keep a healthy distance, and of course, we all wore masks.

The weather was lovely, and lots of neighborhood people were on their terraces and balconies. There were ladies collecting laundry that had been drying all day, kids roller skating on the roof across the street, and people just enjoying the nice weather. When the music started, everyone joined the singing and waved flags. Between songs, we applauded our doctors and nurses and all the people dedicated to helping the stricken; we applauded our police forces for patrolling our streets; we applauded our Tram and bus drivers for getting these people to and from their jobs.

The first song was “Volare,” probably because most of us knew the words, followed by a song by Adriano Celentano, a popular singer, then the national anthem. The evening closed with “Torna a Surriento” – most famous by Pavarotti, although originally made famous by Enrico Caruso at the turn of the last century.

It was a very moving and I cried through most of it. The quarantine is difficult, more than I would have imagined, but I am glad Romans are respecting the rules. We will get through this … together.

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