Day 42: life in Italy under lockdown. A walk away from the wildlife side
Today is Saturday, which was the main street market day in my town until five weeks ago. When lockdown began in mid-March, all openair and enclosed markets had to close because it seemed that people couldn’t keep the one-meter distance mandated by the government. On April 10 Rome modified that rule and decided that open-air markets could re-open but only for food. The other things sold in such markets, including the one in my town, were still verboten.
So I walked by the big parking area near my home where the market is traditionally held. One of the vendors imports a brand of taralli from Puglia that I can’t find in any supermarket or specialized food store, and I love to snack on them: better than chocolate and less caloric. I had long since run out and was hoping that stand would be open.
But no. Not that stand, not any stand. No market, period. The region of Lombardia decided not to re-open its markets at this time. Each of Italy’s 20 regions has flexibility in implementing the guidelines issued by Rome, just as US states have discretion in implementing government guidelines issued by Washington (not that there are many of the latter) and the region where I live is being more cautious than some others. For understandable reasons: of the 22,745 deaths to date from corona virus in Italy, more…