ROME (AP) – Much of Italy cautiously reopened on Monday following the pre-Christmas coronavirus closures, with Vatican museums welcoming a trickle 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 in hard lockdowns amid rising COVID-19 infections and variants, five more Italian regions have slipped into the coveted ‘yellow’ risk category as of Monday. That meant that museums and the Colosseum could reopen, the restaurant and bar service could resume during the day, and many high school students could return to class part-time.
“Finally we can breathe again after this long stay at home,” said waiter Elsafty Rashad, setting tables in front of the La Nonna Betta restaurant in Rome’s Ghetto area. “Without work, staying at home every day is too difficult for us young people who work, pay rent and everything else.”
Italy is certainly not out of the woods: the country has an average of about 12,000-15,000 new confirmed cases and 300-600 COVID-19 deaths per day. But it seems to have avoided the severe post-Christmas spikes in Britain and elsewhere thanks to tightened holiday restrictions that kept the ski slopes closed and prevented residents from traveling outside of their region for large family gatherings.
Many travel restrictions remain in place, along with indoor and outdoor mask mandates, a 10pm curfew, restrictions on public transportation, and other social distance standards designed to keep the health system from collapsing.
Tuscany, for example, was declared “yellow” last week and on Monday the famous Uffizi Gallery reported that about 7,300 visitors had already entered. Museum director Eike Schmidt said he hoped the government would allow the museum to reopen on weekends, even though visitors are almost exclusively locals for now, as interregional travel is still restricted.
In Rome, Monday’s “yellow” designation meant that the Vatican Museums were welcoming visitors for the first time in 88 days – the longest closure ever. Museum director Barbara Jatta said staff took advantage of the week-long shutdown to refurbish a number of exhibition halls and carry out maintenance work that would otherwise be difficult to complete with the nearly 7 million visitors normally congregating to see Michelangelo’s last Judgment ‘and Raphael masterpieces on display every year.
“I think it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it so empty,” marveled Julia Lammer, a visitor from Austria who said she was in Rome for several weeks before she could get a ticket online to get to see the Sistine Chapel on the first day it was reopened.
Italy, the first country in the West to be hit by COVID-19, closed its museums in early November at the peak of its autumn resurgence, dividing the country into a three-pronged risk zone, with regions being the most severely restricted (red) to the least (yellow) based on their infection rates and the health care system’s ability to respond.
Lombardy was the hardest hit and declared a “red zone” because it succumbed to a host of infections and deaths. But even Lombardy graduated to “orange” Monday, allowing shops to reopen and takeaway from restaurants and bars. Not all stores took advantage of it, however, with many still shutters on a generally slow Monday morning.
In Rome, where the “yellow” designation and the reopenings coincided with a hint of spring day, the residents took full advantage.
“We couldn’t wait,” said Giulia Marcelli as she lay in the morning sun. “Look, the very first morning I’m here with my dad to get a cappuccino, sitting at a table outside.”
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Nicole Winfield contributed to this report.