L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 8 THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 L'Italo-Americano T o d a y , 1 6 t h o f M a r c h , we are just starting our s e c o n d w e e k in isolation. The streets are empty and e v e r y t h i n g i s i n c r e d i b l y silent, without the voices of kids and teens coming and going from school and cars roaring just outside the win- dow. The world is still, of a stillness difficult to picture if you don't experience it. I know many of you reading now understand, as this is — slowly but steadily — happe- ning around the US, too. In spite of the eeriness of the situation and the sense of anxiety running under everyone's skin and in the air, just like some sort of heavy dust that lingers in your throat and leaves a bad taste in your mouth, Italy still functions. Many of us keep on working, although most do so from home, and supermarkets and pharma- cies are open, a small remin- der of the normality of our lives before il virus arrived. But with schools closed — although online lessons are a thing across the country — people unable to leave their h o m e s u n l e s s i n c a s e o f emergency or serious neces- sity, and the impossibility to even go upstairs to your nei- ghbor for a quick caffé, we are left with plenty of time in o u r h a n d s . T h o u g h t s g o immediately to our younger generations who, deprived of school and without cer- tain knowledge about the day they'll go back to class, risk to sink into an intellec- tual ennui that could drag them way too easily into a s p i r a l o f t r a s h t v , r e a l i t y s h o w s a n d v i d e o g a m e s bound to stunt their mind's development for months to c o m e . N e i t h e r s h o u l d w e f o r g e t , t h o u g h , t h a t t h e right to have a cultural life i s p a r t o f t h e U n i v e r s a l D e c l a r a t i o n o f H u m a n Rights, because "art makes man" just as much as work does. And that's why last week, o u r m i n i s t e r f o r C u l t u r e Dario Franceschini twee- ted: "starting from today cinemas, theaters, concerts museums will all be closed in Italy. A painful yet neces- sary decision. But culture can get into our homes. I ask to all tv channels to give more space to music, thea- tre, cinema, art and to all cultural agencies and orga- nizations to use their social media and their websites to the max." F r a n c e s c h i n i ' s r e q u e s t was met with positive feed- back from all those he called u p o n , a n d e v e n s o m e more. Many museums and artistic location in Italy have begun using their social media to promote their col- lections and the beauty we can experience when visi- ting them. The Musei Reali i n T u r i n , P o m p e i i , t h e C o l o s s e u m , t h e U f f i z i , N a p l e s ' P a l a z z o R e a l e , Turin's Museo Egizio, Palazzo Barberini in Rome, t h e G a l l e r i a N a z i o n a l e d ' A r t e M o d e r n a e Contemporanea, always in Rome, the Archaeological M u s e u m i n C a g l i a r i , t h e Archaeological Park of t h e C a m p i F l e g r e i, the Museo d'Arte Orientale in V e n i c e , C a p o d i m o n t e , Ancona's Museo Omero, the G a l l e r i a N a z i o n a l e dell'Umbria, the Museo di San Martino are some of the institutions that, following the hashtags #iorestoaca- sa, #museichiusimuseia- perti and #laculturanon- siferma have been posting daily photos and interesting pills of artistic knowledge. Some museums have used plenty of creativity for their social media campaigns, just like Florence's Uffizi, which c r e a t e d t h e U f f i z i Decameron, a daily series of photos, videos and stories about the treasures preser- ved in the museum. And the U f f i z i d i d n ' t c h o o s e t h e Decameron for nothing: the n a r r a t i v e f r a m e t o Boccaccio's quirky, funny, a n d s o m e t i m e s p r e t t y r i s q u é , s h o r t t a l e s t a k e s p l a c e d u r i n g — y e s , y o u guessed it — a plague epide- mic, when a group of young, wealthy Florentines escaped the city and went in isola- tion in the countryside. Just so you know, the initiative gained a good 18.000 sub- scribers to the museum's F a c e b o o k p a g e . T h e Decameron also inspired the Triennale di Milano, with i t s D e c a m e r o n : S t o r i e i n Streaming, a series of pod- casts and videos by artists and performers which, each day, will be published on the Triennale's Instagram page. I n R o m e , t h e M A X X I M u s e u m c r e a t e d C o n d o m i n i o Contemporaneo, a series of short videos posted on their social media channels, dedi- c a t e d t o v a r i o u s a r t i s t i c subjects; for classical music lovers, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia proposes a series of concerts on their website, www.santacecilia.it. A l w a y s i n R o m e , t h e V a t i c a n M u s e u m s a r e also proposing virtual tours and daily new content on t h e i r w e b s i t e a n d s o c i a l media pages. But it isn't only museums that bring culture to us, the quarantined people of Italy: the Italian Government has created a website, soli- darietàdigitale.agid.gov.it. collecting all the services available for free to Italians during this period of lock- down: from free subscrip- tions to magazines to online courses and tutoring sup- port for students, the list is really endless. Many publishing houses have been giving away free ebooks and magazines sub- scriptions: Mondadori offers f r e e e b o o k s a n d t h r e e - month magazine subscrip- tions; Il Saggiatore gifts a free ebook every two days. Bertoni Editore will gift a book of choice to those who requests it at their dedicated emails address. A d e l p h i also proposes a free ebook for those who'll sign up to their newsletter: titles inclu- de great classics like Moby Dick, Roughing it and Suite Française. Last but not least, popular bibliophiles' website Il Libraio also has a free e b o o k b y f a m o u s I t a l i a n author Andrea Vitali, who is also an MD, ready for its fans. I f y o u p r e f e r g o o d , o l d fashioned tomes, then you may be happy to know many bookshops have been testing book deliveries to your door throughout the country, too. What an odd, unsettling thing, isolation is. But you know what, with a good book, museums to v i s i t w h i l e s i t t i n g o n o u r f a v o r i t e a r m c h a i r a n d a good cup of coffee, maybe w e c a n m a k e t h i n g s a b i t better for real. Saint Peter's Basilica, in Rome. The Musei Vaticani are among the Italian museums you can visit virtually during the lockdown (Photo: Dreamstime) Italy at the times of Covid-19: fighting the virus with art SIMONE SCHIAVINATO LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

• Cover