ROME (AP) – A large part of Italy reopened on Monday due to the closure of the coronavirus before Christmas, while the Vatican Museums welcomed a stream of visitors to the Sistine Chapel and locals their outdoor cappuccinos at outdoor tables order.
While many European countries remain under heavy blockade amid rising COVID-19 infections and variants, five other Italian regions graduated from Monday to the coveted “yellow” risk category. This means that museums and the Colosseum can reopen, a seating and bar service can be resumed during the day and many high school students can return to class part-time.
“Finally we can breathe again after this long time of staying home,” waiter Elsafty Rashad said as he set up tables outside the La Nonna Betta restaurant in the Ghetto neighborhood of Rome. “Without work, it is too difficult to stay at home every day for our young people who work, who rent and have to pay for everything else.”
Italy is by no means out of the woods: the country is averaging about 12,000-15,000 newly confirmed cases and 300-600 COVID-19 deaths per day. But it seems to have avoided the serious post-Christmas trainings in Britain and elsewhere, thanks to tougher holiday restrictions that have closed the ski slopes and prevented residents from traveling outside their regions for large family gatherings.
Many travel restrictions remain in place, along with mandates inside and outside, a curfew at 10pm, restrictions on public transport and other socially distracting measures aimed at preventing the health system from moving downwards.
Tuscany, for example, was declared ‘yellow’ last week, and its famous Uffizi gallery reported on Monday that about 7,300 visitors have already passed through the doors. Museum director Eike Schmidt said he hoped the government would be able to open the museum on weekends as well, although visitors are now almost exclusively residents, as interregional travel is still limited.
In Rome, the ‘yellow’ designation on Monday means that the Vatican Museums welcomed visitors for the first time in 88 days – the longest closing ever. Museum director Barbara Jatta said staff took advantage of the week-long closure to rearrange exhibition halls and do maintenance work that would otherwise be difficult to complete with the nearly 7 million visitors who normally visit Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” each year and Raphael masterpieces go watch.
“I think it was an opportunity in life to see it so empty,” marvels Julia Lammer, a visitor from Austria who said she had been in Rome for several weeks before she could pick up a ticket online to to see the Sistine Chapel on the first day it reopened.
Italy, the first country in the West to be hit by COVID-19, closed its museums in early November during the autumn survey and divided the country into a three-tiered risk zone, with regions granted the strictest restrictions (red) to the least (yellow) based on their infection rates and the ability of the healthcare system to respond.
Lombardy, which was hit the hardest, was declared a ‘red zone’ because it again succumbed to a large number of infections and deaths. But even Lombardy went ‘orange’ on Monday, allowing the stores to re-serve at restaurants and bars. However, not all stores benefited, while many closed on a typically slow Monday morning.
In Rome, where the “yellow” designation and reopening coincided with a hint of a spring day, residents took full advantage.
“We could not wait,” said Giulia Marcelli as she soaked in the morning sun. “Look, the first morning I’m here with my dad to put a cappuccino on the table, outside.”
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Nicole Winfield contributed to this report.