I had heard about the rich tradition among Italians of flaunting the rules, and I even blogged about that a few weeks ago. These hastily announced rules issued in the early morning hours irritated city leaders in northern Italy who complained that they were not adequately consulted before the rules went into place- apparently a draft of the announcement was leaked on Saturday night to the press, resulting in the announcement being made before it was fully vetted through traditional channels.
When the rumors of the pending lockdown leaked out late on Saturday night, we heard that hundreds of people in Milan rushed for the train stations to get out of the city, likely spreading the virus to other parts of Italy as they fled.
Then on the evening of March 9, the quarantine measures were expanded again to the entire country of Italy, to be effective the next day. On March 11, further restrictions were announced. At this point only grocery stores, food stores and pharmacies were to remain open, but restaurants were to close, except for some that could deliver food in a safe way for takeout while maintaining the required 1 meter distance between and among customers and the servers. Interestingly, enotecas, or wine stores, could remain open.
Taking time out on our balcony
Our neighborhood bakery was also allowed to be open. We started reading about the exponential growth of the cases and deaths, and our sleep patterns, which hadn’t really gotten back into a rhythm following our week in America, continued to be disrupted.
On March 21, even further restrictions were announced and all non-necessary businesses and industries were to stop on-site operations. This measure came after the new cases and deaths continues to rise, even to the point where Italy’s death toll exceeded China’s. On March 22, Lombardy strengthened its restrictions even further, banning all outdoor physical activity.
Why am I giving you all these dates and facts? First of all, I want to reflect on the short period of time from Sunday, February 23, just one month earlier, when we first heard that some towns in northern Italy were going to be quarantined, to this week when we can’t even go outside for fresh air and exercise. The restrictions have been announced in an unsteady but growing manner and the mood of our fellow residents has gotten more and more somber.
We have all reverted to our own quirky methods of trying to get some control over our lives. For me, it’s cleaning our apartment and planning our menus daily.
My first sourdough bread! 
My daily plan outlined on our whiteboard! 
Homemade Mushroom Ravioli
For our neighbors, it’s washing clothes daily, and posting signs by their front door imploring everyone to leave their shoes outside. We see outdoor jackets being hung under the balconies (but outside) of our neighbors’ apartments so that they don’t get brought inside. The dogwalkers go out with purpose and then return. Police cars ride by with loudspeakers imploring folks to stay inside. We continue to have trouble sleeping.
Kevin continues to teach his students online and I try to keep myself occupied, but I don’t know where the days go. We watch the 6 pm press conference, typing in Italian words we don’t know into our Google Translate app, and we hope and pray that the numbers start to drop, for the sake of the sick and the weary health care workers. Thankfully the past 3 days have seen the increase in the numbers drop slightly. It’s too soon to declare anything other than gratitude for the short trend. As of March 26, the Worldometer stats show Italy at 74,386 total cases, 7505 deaths, and 9362 recovered. For the United States, their numbers show 68,489 total cases, 1032 deaths and 394 recovered. The United States is catching up to us.
My next post is to give you some insight on my day- no day is typical because the restrictions have constantly changed, but it will give you an idea of what this has been like. People say there’s been nothing like this, even in wartime. If you think this can’t happen where you live, for whatever reason you are hearing from the talking heads on tv, then I just say that you need to think again. Milan and northern Italy has a world renowned health care system and look at where we are. There are small towns around Milan, just like there are small towns around the world, that proudly thought it would never happen to their little spot of paradise. But the world is flat and we are social creatures. All it takes is one asymptomatic person to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and you or your loved one, or a friend of a friend is diagnosed. You think it only happens to older people? That’s mostly true, but you or your friend might be the exception. You think it only happens to immuno-compromised people? Well, guess what. You are probably related to people in that category and you might not even know it. Save the conspiracy theories and the lamentations that the cure is worse than the problem until our health care providers tell us that they have this somewhat under control. Let the medical professionals, the experts, give us the guidance we need to get through this. If the social-loving, warm and friendly Italians can stay home and suck it up, so can we.
