ROME (AP) – Much of Italy has carefully reopened on Monday since the coronavirus closed before Christmas, with Vatican Museums receiving a string of visitors to the Sistine Chapel and locals ordering their cappuccinos at outdoor tables for the first time in weeks.
While many European countries remain heavily blocked amid rising COVID-19 infections and variants, five more Italian regions have been coveted the coveted “yellow” risk category since Monday. This meant that museums and the Colosseum could reopen, the restaurant and bar services could resume during the day and many high school students could return to part-time classes.
“Finally, we can breathe again after this long stay at home,” said waiter Elsafty Rashad as he arranged meals outside the La Nonna Betta restaurant in Rome’s Ghetto district. “Without work, staying home every day is too difficult for us, the young people who work, who have to pay rent and everything else.”
Italy is by no means out of the forest: the country has on average about 12,000-15,000 new confirmed cases and 300-600 COVID-19 deaths every day. But it seems to have avoided severe post-Christmas growth in Britain and elsewhere, due to tight holiday restrictions that kept ski slopes closed and prevented residents from traveling outside their regions for large family reunions.
Many travel restrictions remain in place, along with internal and external mask warrants, 22:00 coverage, public transport limits and other social distance rules aimed at preventing the health system from spinning.
Tuscany, for example, was declared “yellow” last week and on Monday its famous Uffizi Gallery reported that about 7,300 visitors had already passed through its doors. The director of the museum, Eike Schmidt, said he hoped the government would allow the museum to reopen on weekends, although for now visitors are almost exclusively locals, as interregional travel is still restricted.
In Rome, Monday’s “yellow” name meant that Vatican Museums welcomed visitors for the first time in 88 days – its longest closure to date. The director of the museum, Barbara Jatta, said that the staff took advantage of the closure of a few weeks to rearrange some exhibition halls and do maintenance work that would otherwise be difficult to complete with the nearly 7 million visitors crowding in. normal to see Michelangelo’s masterpieces “The Last Judgment” and Raphael every year.
“I think it was a unique opportunity in my life to see her so naked,” wondered Julia Lammer, a visitor from Austria who said she had been in Rome for weeks before she could get a ticket online to see The Sistine Chapel was reopened on the first day.
Italy, the first country in the West to be hit by COVID-19, closed its museums in early November during the peak of its autumn resurgence and divided the country into a three-tier risk zone, whose regions the most severe restrictions were restricted (red) to the lowest (yellow) based on infection rates and the ability of the health care system to respond.
The worst affected Lombardy has been declared a “red zone” because it has again succumbed to a large number of infections and deaths. But even Lombardy graduated the “orange” course on Monday, allowing stores to reopen and offer restaurant and bar services. Not all stores benefited, however, with many still closed on a slow Monday morning.
In Rome, where the name “yellow” and the reopening coincided with a hint of spring day, residents took full advantage.
“I can’t wait,” Giulia Marcelli said as she soaked in the morning sun. “Look, right this morning I’m here with my dad having a cappuccino, sitting at a table outside.”
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Nicole Winfield contributed to this report.