Coronavirus | 'I know South Africans. I am one. The spirit that got us through apartheid, the Rugby World Cup, the Fifa World Cup, will get you through.'
The locals scoffed when, one after another, foreign universities and colleges in Florence closed -"It's just like the flu," many said. That was late February and there were only a handful of coronavirus cases in northern Italy.
Last weekend the closed-off area expanded from 50,000 people to 16-million people in the north. Across the country, places of art and beauty joined places of learning in lockdown. Yet on Sunday the Tuscan spring sun shone gently and Florentines poured out onto the streets, wandering across the Ponte Vecchio licking gelato, hanging out around Palazzo Pitti in bars and restaurants. It was as if, once again, they could claim back their magnificent city as their own.
Silence. Emptiness. Order. This was not Wuhan. This was not China. This was vibrant Italy. Imagine Italy without bars and cars and restaurants and museums and church bells ringing .This virus has plucked out the soul of Italians - a society whose very foundations are- genuine, generous and warm people. You're greeted with a, you're invited for the best coffee in the world for €1 and an aperitivo on the terrazza.
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