Anna Tozzi Di Marco
social and cultural anthropologist
Rome, Italy
Some considerations about my quarantine life and Italian people (and our Government) facing the
Covid 19 spread.
When the Covid-19 began to spread to Italy at the end of February, I was writing my book on the
results of my research project (I am an indipendent and freelance researcher) about the Seven
sleepers/Ashab al-Kahf in the Mediterranean countries, and I was planning to go for some field
works in Turkey, Greece and Southern Italy for the last investigations.
Of course, I have had to interrupt all my research plans but I have kept writing some chapters of the
book.
My income job as Airbnb host also forced to be interrupted, hence I am living with my savings.
Meantime my daily life has not changed a lot, as I live in a country 3 apt house in a very green
suburban nieghborhood in Rome. During spring time I usually spend most of my day time in the
fruit and vegetable garden and taking care of flower plants. I have a lot of works to do: to cut fruit
trees, to cut grass, to check all the plants, to plant new vegetables and so on. So that I don't feel
discomfort living in isolation, because I always have appreciated the quietness and the silence of my
garden and house. During the winter I usually have a small social life and I awake seasonally with
the fine weather enjoying the sun which gives to me the energies and positive vibes. I live with my
partner (translator of books and at the same time University student) while in another flat of the
house my brother (school teacher) lives and in the third apartment his guest who is a Kenyan master
student at private university of Business and Economics in Rome. Starting from our small
heterogeneous community I has been reflecing on how the epidemic and its consequences have
affected us firstly, then my neighbors and lastly the Italian society in general.
So that I proceeded from a micro ethnography to general reflections on Italian society. It is a long
report even if I tried to concentrate my thoughts.
After the closure of schools and universities, teachers and students have gradually started virtual
lessons. Hence both my partner and my Kenyan neighbor, Nick, spend their time in studying
virtually. My partner, Fabrizio, was born in Turin (Northern Italy) and he is accostumed to spend
most of his time indoor during the winter, thus he is not stressed by this segregation.
From the first period (March 9th), because of strict measures of isolation, Italians can go out only to
buy food, to go for medical necessities, to work, although many people started smart work at home,
to have a short walk in the surroundings.
In our small house community Nick is the scariest person about the epidemic. Maybe because he
doesn't know Italian language, he can't have the real perception of what's going on here. As
instance, he didn't know he needed a self-certification to go out I provided to him and I always
inform him about the new measures of our Government to fight the virus spread. When Nick goes
out (once a week), only to shopping food, he always weares mask and gloves, even covering his
head. Nick never went for jogging or a walk, or other things are possible to do in this period. His
parents are very scary and worried for him so that they asked to him for coming back home but he
has a good resilience behavior and he hopes his university will open soon. He spend his time home
in watching movies and news channels, chatting with friends and relatives and studying his lessons.
By the way, I tried in vain to calm his anxiety.
On the contrary, we and my brother, at a different level, have a more flexible conduct, in the terms
that we observe only the rules we believe useful. My brother goes by foot to shopping food at
nearest supermarket (3 km far) as well jogging every day, whereas the Government suggested to go
out the less as possible. Even he often meets his girlfriend at home, despite of the slogan
"#stayathome", spread inceasingly on mass media and social networks as Facebook. We have never
bought masks and gloves. When I rarely go to the supermarket, the staff provides to me the gloves,
because the mask is not obligatory except in some regions of Italy. We favor (as before) the small
food shops in the suburb for their best quality of the food and also for the less people on queue to
enter. We have been always taking care about quality of food, and our health in general, trying to
practice an ecological mind and habits. Besides in the supermarket, I use gloves on the bus when I
very rarely take it. I think the fundamental principle to avoid the contagion is only the social
distance and indoor the hygienic precautions.
My neighbors have different conducts: my nearest ones are locked at home, they never go out,
shopping on line and using the delivery, they open the door only on delivery dates; others just
respect the State decrees going out for needs and exchange greetings in meeting others in our street;
the oldest 2 neighbors, 87 years aged women never go out, neither on their balcony; my dearest
neighbor, also a very old lady (84 years) I often and usuallly help, is not scared, nothing has
changed in her life, she still goes bycling to shopping daily and she often comes to ring to my door
to have a talk, just keeping social distance; the Romanian neighbors living in 2 close flats in front of
my house, stll keep to meet each others and have Sunday lunch together. They are also organizing a
vegetable garden. The street where we live is a dead end alley, we know each others and it has
always represented a place to socialize daily among neighbors. We are a very small community,
helping each others, organizing common works as the cleaning of the street etc. (but also with some
conflicts). Nowadays the alley is always empty with rare socializing acts. During the evening I also
am afraid to get to the main spectral street to throw out the rubbish.
As the dead and infected people increased Government adopted stricter measures about mobility.
The virus spread in a different ways and times in the Italian regions. The first and the most affected
region was (and still is) the Lombardy in the Northern Italy that is also one the most polluted areas.
Every day the dead are still many hundreds after 2 month quarantine. Every day on National Tv the
medical bulletin communicates to us the number of thousands infected and dead, and few healed
people. Most of the dead were old people with other precedent illnesses (cancer, diabetics etc.). By
their numbers were increasing more and more Italians have fell in a state of fear and complete
phobia. This psycological condition was induced through the way of giving these official numbers
accompanied by Tv tragic images of dead and spectral cities and through scientists' articles and
speeches on Covid-19 while the Italian virologists are in contrast, everyone defending own section
of power. The governamental scientific commettee gives only the number of the infected and dead
in the hospitals, whereas many people are ill and die at home, because of the lackness of hospital
beds and intensive care units. The public health has suffered a lot for spending review in the last 30
years meantime the private one has grown with the financial support of the State. They don't say the
reason people die, the dead are just grouped in one unique category: Covid-19. People don't die
anymore for other illness in Italy!
News broadcasts show a long and silent queue of military tanks with anonymous coffins without
funerals and relatives. The funerals are prohibited. The bereaved and the condolents cannot give the
last farewell to their parents and friends. Tv stressed people die alone in very suffering conditions.
On the other hand politicians of the opposition parties (right wing and far-right) are politically
profiting of the increasing of the virus rapid spread. They are asking to the Government parties to
leave and they are trying to foment citizens through tons of fake news by misusing citizens' fear.
The role of the Pope and the Vatican in the media spreading terror has also to be considered. The
Catholic Pope has always had a strong influence on Italian media and politics. During the year
almost every day National Tv shows his speeches (or of the other prominent clerics) about poverty,
religious matters or Italian politics, following the events. As the churches are closed by the Covid
law, on Easter Friday the religious ritual has been prepared in the Vatican, caring of all details to
take effect on everybody's souls and minds. The show has gone on all international and national
media.
The accurate scenographic setting with theatre lights and stage with the crucifix in an empty and
night San Peter square was arranged. The contrite Pope Francis, alone at the centre of the desolate
scene, approaching and getting on the stage with slow movements marked the symbolic meaning of
the contrast with the sorrowful surroundings. This bare and dejected man with his pray for the
humanity, has hit both believers and atheists. The Pope has well embodied the sentiment of the
absolute solitude of human being facing the imponderable.
This mainstream very powerful narrative of Covid-19, as a mix of political and religious elements,
has had a strong psycological and social impact on lives of Italians. Most of the them follow the
Covid law decrees literally and without reasoning, because they are terrified by the fear of getting
sick and die alone. They are stucked in their fright without having the mental lucidity and the force
of rebellion against the State decisions on their lives. In this tragic period they look like many
automatons. Hence they have forced themselves and their childrens to the strictest reclusion at
home, more than the decree orders. Nevertheless the hunt to the Chinese residents began, even if
there has been no infect Chinese in Italy! Even though the Cinese community was the most
responsible, they have been insulted and assaulted. Meantime the Government has reacted to the
Covid-19 forcing citizens to stay at home and giving the responsability of the virus spread to their
improper behaviors, also blaming those who don't respect the measures. Moreover in the most
affected region Lombardy (the most productive area of the country), paying the industrialists league
demands, the local government and the State didn't decided to shut down factories where people
work without social distance, masks and other safe measures. At beginning even in the hospitals
doctors and nurses didn't have appropriate safe stuff, so that many of them died. Also in
consequence of the lack of State control over the factories the infection and the death of many
workers and their relatives increased a lot. In this respect Italian anthropologists which are engaged
in various activities about the social changes due to the Covid (virtual lessons, virtual public
debates, workshops, interviewes etc.), have put in discussion the mainstream binary opposition
outdoor danger/indoor safety among the other matters, in underlining the higher contagiousness in
indoor environments of factories and homes. Further, the decision of the Lombardy government to
move the infected to the public and private retirement homes for elderly, blackmailing their
managers to cut the financial support, besides the lackness of hygienic measures, has had the result
to spread the virus in these structures with hundreds of deaths.
The state of terror has been accomplished!
People regard each others with suspicion and distrust. Nobody anymore says hello and have a smile
in the streets. By crossing the others people change the sidewalk.
However the reactions of Italians are diversified over times and places. A few part of them doesn't
accept the Covid law, especially the youth. I often saw groups of teenagers to play together or talk
without social distance. Some citizens cunningly transgress the rules, they go out without any
necessities trying to avoid the police control and the fines. In a small town near Naples (Southern
Italy) a boy, probably stressed by segregation, went down to the street and started to dance with
music player, calling his neighbors to join.
Futhermore at beginning people tried to cope with the isolation through a sentiment of unity, of
National proud encouraged by the State, going out to the balcony at certain fixed hour daily, for
joining meeting to sing our National anthem. Notwithstanding this National feeling soon
disappeared with the growth of the fear and a lot of acts of delation have taken the place. Half of the
citizens, terrified, show fascist and racist mentality and attitudes against migrants and the
transgressors of the Covid state rules. Most of the persons, frustated by staying at home all the day,
started to call the police for every crowd, even small groups they saw from the window, ignoring
their reasons. Therefore solo runners or people walking with dogs or with child, even adopting
social distance, have been looked at as greasers and insulted under the slogan "#stayathome". They
justify their bad behavior, thinking - without any rationalist mind - the trangressors may spread the
virus to the others. Also the most widespread justification was the conviction that if the violators
had some phisical accident in their needless activities they would occupy hospital beds useful for
Covid sicks. Consequently they are potentially guilty of the Covid deaths and insofar ethically
irresponsible in front of the health personnel's sacrifice. In addition where there is a local right wing
government, as near Turin, some groups of dwellers started to replace the police, enquiring people
in the streets. Some of these attitudes have also resulted in phisical assaults and insults. Even some
policemen, until nowadays, interpret the State decrees and apply wrongly fines, abusing their police
power. It is scandalous as the case of a couple with their daughter who needed a medical check after
the bone marrow transplant, moving to another town by car, were stopped and fined by police.
People started also to denigrate those who contrast the State decisions, or having a more rational
approach to the situation without scaring. Even I suffered of this kind of blame on Facebook. I was
attacked publicly through a video addressed to me by one of my Facebook contacts. It is very
frequent to be attacked with insults and defamation on Facebook because of own counter-opinions
of the critic minority.
On the opposite side many citizens reacted to the isolation in a creative way, socializing through
balconies, filming while playing music or organizing public virtual reading etc. Most are also
engaged in the solidariety to the poorest, the unemployed, the elderly, the homeless etc. without any
ethnic/racial differentiation in spite of Fascist charity associations which help only Italian poors as
declared.
As example of the revival of racism in the suburb where I live in Rome I report this fact. There is an
hotel converted into a Covid structure which hosts quarantine migrants who live with their positive
Covid roommates and cannot stay isolated at their homes but they don't need to be hospitalzed. As
soon as they arrived some inhabitans, which were worried wrongly and apparently for the spread of
the virus in the neighborhood, have started the denigration of these people and the managment of
the hotel. They started to spread fake news on them, to take photos of them putting on Facebook
and affirming the missing of the respect of rules, their uncivility and all the other stigma.
Additionally they went outside the hotel to protest, they wrote on its walls racist slogans, giving the
image of a buffer and not welcoming neighborhood. This group of racists have been fomented by
local right wing politicians who edited a fake article on newspaper. In truth, most of them are
worried that after the quarantine period these migrants remain in the hotel transforming it into a
center for refugees with the consequence of the deterioration of the place and the devaluation of
their houses on their opinion.
On the opposite side the democratic part of the inhabitants is trying to counterfight this fake
narrative as possible respecting the Covid law, debating on Facebook and calling to the others'
social awareness in order to make pressure on local authorities to stigmatize and block this racist
behavior. The situation is on going whereas the Government is announcing the planning for the
phase 2 with the gradual reopening of production and the return to the normal life because of the
decrease of deaths and infected. In conclusion, if in Italy we compare the number of deaths for
pneumonia during the precedent years are almost the same of 2020, the only difference is its high
concentration in the Northern part of the country.
I think the repeated slogan "all will goes well" within a rainbow as a mantra is only an utopia.
People are worsening more and more in a selfish and individualist way of thinking and living. I
have also many other considerations related to the globalized situation about, as for instance, the
environmental question and economic neo colonialism, and so on but it is too long to describe it and
it needs a second report.
In Italy unfortunately everything will go back as usual after quarantine, indeed "the normality is the
problem"!