L'Italo-Americano
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2020
www.italoamericano.org
6
NEWS & FEATURES
TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS
to the land of your ancestors
by proudly buying Italian
and telling others to do it,
too. Organize dinners with
your friends, cook Italian
food, share your commit-
ment for the culture that
made you w h o you are:
Italy needs you, believe me.
We got to know, from the
people in th e R ed Zon es
(the areas of Lombardia
and Veneto were the main
Covid-19 clusters are) that
full isolation from the rest of
th e w orld is doin g
something special to their
communities: it's bringing
th em togeth er again .
Children play in the streets,
people speak to each other
more, even if from a safe 1.5
meters distance; old friends
rekindled their friendships
and everyday friends, sepa-
rated from th e in v isib le
,army-guarded quarantine
lin e, commun icate w ith
music, as a group of ama-
teur bagpipe players did
just yesterday, when they
played on the outside of a
Red Zone, and a friend of
theirs, quarantined, played
from the inside. People all
over Italy rediscovered soli-
darity and civic sense, too:
younger people doing the
shopping for their elderly
n eigh b ors, so th ey don 't
need to leave the house too
often and relatives speaking
to each other on the phone
more often just to make sure
everything is ok.
We got to kn ow our
health system is solid and
our doctors well trained,
level headed, professional,
courageous: even in a state
of full emergen cy, ev en
when forces are strained —
as it is happening right now
in Lombardia, the region
with the highest amount of
cases — our medical staff
continues to offer reassuran-
ce, care, protection to each
and everyone of us. Let me
say it out loud, and to the
world: thank you, guys. We
complain often about the
w ay our h ealth system
work, but we rarely realize
how lucky we are.
This is a very difficult
time for our country, and it
won't end when contagion
stops. There'll be conse-
quences to face, economical-
ly and socially, there'll be
trust to rebuild, but Italy
will make it: if there is a
country that can, that's us.
It'll take more than a virus
to stop Italy.
Continued from page 4
Smiling by the lake: to support Italy, we can keep on buying authentic Italian products, especially now! (Copyright: Dreamstime)
The Leaning Tower of Pisa: make sure to show your Italianness these days, don't be afraid! (Copyright: Dreamstime)
A gondola in Venice. Tourism will pay a high price because of the coronavirus epidemic (Copyright: Dreamstime)
