After China, COVID-19 struck Italy hard. It became the country with the most infected patients in Europe. However, Italians came together at this time to sing songs of solidarity from their balconies.
Italy, with its 60 million inhabitants, has gone into a nationwide lockdown since March 10, with its northern region in total quarantine. It currently records 17,750 coronavirus active cases and 1,441 deaths.
The lockdown is said to be until April 3rd, as an estimated date since the country hasn’t yet managed to control the outbreak.
Schools, museums, universities, and cinemas are closed. Public events and soccer matches have also been canceled. The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte kept only supermarkets and pharmacies open throughout Italy.
Consequently, during this lockdown, Italy’s economy and Italian blue-chip stocks plunged by over 23% in a week, according to CNBC.
60 million people were ordered to stay home in an attempt to control the rapid spread of the virus.
Lockdowns can take a toll on everyone, however, Italians managed to make the best out of the situation. Italian people are coming together at this time to sing songs of solidarity from their balconies.
Video clips from Sicily, Naples, and Bologna have gone viral with beautiful uplifting initiatives for the Italians to deal with the lockdown.
In Sicily, quarantined Italians dug out their musical instruments to join a folk singer from their balconies:
In Napoli, as music blasted in an alley and people sang from their balconies, a Napolese nonna lifted further the mood as she started dancing on her balcony with people cheering at her:
In Rome, in the Monteverde area, a DJ set up at a rooftop and invited the residents to sing along.
In light of this situation, These people have made the best of a very bad situation. In addition to uplifting their spirits, it brought them closer in at a time like this.
And there is more!
And the creativity of some Italians on how to best protect themselves could be…amusingly bold!
