ROME (AP) – Much of Italy reopened carefully on Monday after the coronavirus closed before Christmas, and Vatican museums welcomed a string of visitors to the Sistine Chapel and locals asking for their cappuccinos at the outdoor tables for the first time in weeks.
While many European countries remain in strong blockades amid variants and variants of COVID-19 infections, five more Italian regions graduated into the coveted “yellow” risk category as of Monday. This meant that museums and the Colosseum could reopen, 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 period of staying at home,” waiter Elsafty Rashad said as he set up tables in front of La Nonna Betta restaurant in Rome’s Ghetto district. “Without a job, staying home every day is too difficult for the young people we work with, who have to pay the rent and everything else.”
Italy is by no means out of the woods: the country makes an average of approximately 12,000-15,000 new confirmed cases and 300-600 deaths from COVID-19 every day. But it seems to have prevented serious post-Christmas climbs in Britain and elsewhere thanks to hardened restrictions during the holidays that kept ski slopes closed and prevented residents from traveling outside their regions to hold large family reunions.
Many travel restrictions are maintained, along with indoor and outdoor mask warrants, a curfew at 10 p.m., public transportation limits, and other social distance rules designed to prevent the health care system from tipping over.
Tuscany, for example, was declared “yellow” last week and on Monday its famous Uffizi Gallery reported that some 7,300 visitors had already passed through its doors. Museum director Eike Schmidt said he hoped the government would allow the museum to reopen on weekends as well, although at the moment visitors are almost exclusively local, as interregional travel is still restricted.
In Rome, Monday’s “yellow” designation meant that the Vatican Museums welcomed visitors for the first time in 88 days, their longest closure in history. Museum director Barbara Jatta said the staff took advantage of the week-long closure to rearrange some exhibition halls and do maintenance work that would otherwise be difficult to complete with the nearly 7 million visitors who they come every year to see the masterpieces of the “Final Judgment” and Raphael by Michelangelo.
“I think it was a unique opportunity in life to see it so empty,” marveled Julia Lammer, an Austrian visitor who said she had been in Rome for several weeks before she could get a ticket online for see it. the Sistine Chapel on the first day it reopened.
Italy, the first western country to be affected 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, with the regions assigned to the most severe restrictions (red) to the minimum (yellow) according to their infection rates and the responsiveness of the health system.
The most affected Lombardy was declared a “red zone” as it again succumbed to a high number of infections and deaths. But even Lombardy graduated to “orange” on Monday, which allowed stores to reopen and take out the service of restaurants and bars. However, not all stores took advantage, with many still closed on a typically slow Monday morning.
In Rome, where the “yellow” designation and reopening coincided with a hint of a spring day, residents came out to make the most of it.
“We couldn’t wait,” Giulia Marcelli said as she soaked in the morning sun. “Look, the first 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.