Milan is yearning for a return to la dolce vita

Since the lockdown started, everyone’s life has changed. Milan, Italy’s normally frenetic business capital, renowned for its world-class fashion and design, is no longer the city that I know.

Piazza del Duomo, the focal point of the city, is practically deserted. Squares and cafés and bars are eerily quiet as the government tries to contain Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak. The city is like something out of an apocalypse film. The underground is running as usual, but the carriages are virtually empty and the Tannoy announcements echo around the carriages.

People hold scarves over their mouths, and the small number of people on the trains stay well away from each other.

When I saw the first checkpoints on street corners on Monday, with police officers wearing masks, I realised for the first time that something really momentous is happening.

I’ve seen a city that’s rapidly transformed in the last three days. If I wanted to go for a walk along the shores of Lake Como, to the north of the city, I couldn’t. And I can’t take my daughter to the cinema either.

We are being forced to renounce so many of the precious things of life. It’s hard to get used to.

And it is hard to remain optimistic when you know that all this could last a month, maybe longer – who knows?

Working at home is something that thousands of Milanese people have had to adopt in the last few days.

Although this initial phase may seem an enjoyable novelty, I fear that soon many of us will begin to hate the idea of not being able to go to the office. I talk to my colleagues on Whatsapp and follow the updates for my work on Slack. Technology is really helping us a lot. Ten years ago, it would have been a lot harder.

I went online shopping over the weekend. I was lucky, because I found a free slot for home delivery in just four days. Yesterday, the same supermarket said a delivery would take nine days.

Every morning, my wife logs on to Google platforms and lectures her students through a webcam. Thanks to e-learning, schools in Milan are trying to find an apparent normality. But all this gives us a feeling of emptiness.

My relatives live in the south of Italy. But I have never thought of leaving Lombardy to join them. It would be an irresponsible move.

Now, in these completely abnormal days, we have only one hope: that all this will pass quickly and normality will return.