McMahons in Confinement: Perspectives from Week 4-Italy in a nationwide lockdown

On Sunday March 9,2020, less than 24 hours after we returned to Milan from America, we awoke to the news that the 11 municipality quarantine zone was now expanded to cover much of northern Italy, affecting over 16 million people. Restaurants and cafes were permitted to remain open, but operations were limited to the hours between 6 am and 6 pm, while many other public locations such as gyms, bars, museums and swimming pools were closed altogether. Businesses were told to begin allowing nonessential employees to work remotely. At the time of this announcement, these restrictions were considered among the strictest of any country outside of China, and certainly led us all to wonder whether citizens of a democratic country would abide by the rules. We walked up to the Duomo that Sunday to see for ourselves. At this point there were no restrictions on outdoor exercise, provided you kept the 1 meter distance apart from others.