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As the coronavirus has ravaged Italy — infecting at least 31,500 people and claiming 2,500 lives, more than any country aside from China — the government has taken draconian measures that have changed every facet of life in a country where greetings tend to include multiple kisses and people often touch each other when they talk.
From Rome to Milan, Italians living through the fear and isolation of a quarantine have some hard words of advice for Americans who may soon face similarly harsh restrictions as the infectious disease spreads across the country: Prepare for the worst, they say, and don’t expect the purgatory to end soon.
For Vaughn Grooters, who hasn’t left her apartment since the lockdown began, everything has changed.
At first, there was an eerie silence: no flights overhead, scant traffic on the normally busy roads, and few, if any, pedestrians on the typically bustling piazzas below. But the quiet let some hopeful sounds in — birds chirping, a father and son kicking a ball on a nearby rooftop, and the evening communal singing from balconies.
More recently, she hears helicopters and ambulances, likely taking newly infected patients to nearby hospitals.
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“Nothing in academia prepares you for this lived reality,” said Vaughn Grooters, an epidemiologist who studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has lived in Rome since 2016.
Quarantined at her home in Milan, Thea Duncan and her husband have been separated from their 1-year-old son, whom they left with his grandparents before the travel ban took effect. They haven’t been allowed to leave the city to visit him.
Duncan, 37, an expatriate blogger who runs a local travel agency, said she has made it through so far with just one “really ugly cry moment.”
“I’ve likened the coronavirus outbreak to crossing the street at an intersection,” she said. “If we don’t take prudent precautions — like looking both ways before crossing the street — we risk dire consequences.”
In Siena, Christian Tozzi has maintained his sanity by baking cakes and making pasta with his wife and two children. A devout Catholic, he watches Mass online and spends time in their garden. The 48-year-old banker can work mainly from home, while his children try to keep up with their studies by working on assignments their teachers share online.
His family has more than enough food to get by, but some staples — such as bread, milk, and pasta — have been scarce, as people have been buying in large quantities when they go shopping, he said.
“The phrase that occurs most often between us is that our grandparents were asked to go to war, while we are now being asked to stay at home,” Tozzi said.
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Also in Siena, where tourists usually abound this time of year, Bernardo Mario, a student, pines for the resumption of normal life, when he can play soccer and see friends.
“In this awkward situation, time passes slowly,” he said. “The limits of the walls of our little house are heavy.”
When the 19-year-old goes grocery shopping, he worries about being stopped by police, who often question people about why they’re outside.
“In the streets, a strange sense of loneliness takes me: no one around, people waiting their turn out of the pharmacies … two meters from each other,” he said.
Natalie Kennedy has been confined to her house in Rome with her husband, where each takes turns looking after their 2-year-old son so the other can work.
“When your child care disappears, you just make do,” she said.
The biggest challenge, perhaps, is the looming uncertainty about the future — when the lockdown will be lifted, she said.
“We have all realized by now that it will be much longer than the initial period that was announced,” said Kennedy, 34, an expatriate writer who has lived in Rome since 2010.
Eight months pregnant, another concern is what the impact will be on her ability to deliver at the couple’s local hospital. “No one knows,” she said.
Jehan Hindo got engaged to her fiancé a week before the national lockdown. Since then, she has left her home in Florence only once, passing the time mainly by making quarantine videos and posting them on YouTube.
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“The biggest challenge is to not go stir crazy,” said Hindo, 35, a Detroit native who has lived in Italy for the past five years and works for an advertising agency.
When she left her apartment this week for the first time, it was for less than a half hour, to stock up on food.
Before leaving, she donned a mask and gloves, her grocery list at the ready.
She described the empty streets as “creepy.”
“I was actually terrified,” she said. “To be honest, we don’t even want to leave, because it isn’t worth the risk.”
David Abel can be reached at david.abel@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @davabel.
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From Italy, a dire warning of what may come - The Boston Globe
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