Italians cherish small concessions

– Stir-crazy Italians were free to stroll and visit relatives for the first time in nine weeks yesterday as Europe’s hardest-hit country eased back the world’s longest nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

Four million people – an estimated 72% of them men – returned to their construction sites and factories in the economically and emotionally shattered country.

Restaurants that have managed to survive Italy’s most disastrous crisis in generations will reopen for takeaway services.

But bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut. The use of public transport will be discouraged and everyone will have to wear masks in indoor public spaces.

“We are feeling a mix of joy and fear,” 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome.

“There will be great happiness in being able to go running again carefree, in my son being allowed to have his little cousin over to blow out his birthday candles, to see our parents,” the father-ofthree said.

“But we are also apprehensive because they are old and my father-in-law has cancer so he is high risk.”

Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus emerged in December, led the world with an unprecedented lockdown on 23 January that lasted 76 days. Italy became the first Western democracy to shut down virtually everything in the face of an illness that has now officially killed 28 884. A poll by the Piepoli Institute showed 62% of Italians think they will need psychological support coming to grips with the post-lockdown world. –