Covid19: one full year

Who would have ever imagined that one year after we'd still be in full Covid19 mood and lifestyle? 

But here we are after another red zone lockdown, another Easter holiday we couldn't share with our family and friends and more online engagements than we'd like. Or maybe not... some people are actually quite happy to be home in their sweats all the time and who can blame them? Especially in Turin where commutes have never been that smooth.

Compared to Spring 2020, March and April 2021 were easier, no doubt: more shops were open - gelaterias included - and we even enjoyed a full week of summer temperatures at the turn of the month. It felt like being in the Midwest: summer during Spring Break and Winter the day school resumed... just schools in Turin resumed this week...

At the same, in the EU we have been having problems with the vaccination campaign: first the contracts for the doses weren't and still aren't respected, read: the EU has no doses. Then we had the Astrazeneca victims and all the doses of this vaccine halted; different strains of Covid19 are spreading quickly, the British one on top.

In March 2021 Piedmont and many other Italian regions saw a big surge of cases: the Turin ERs and hospitals were so overcrowded our patients needed to be moved out of town. The average age of the patients is getting younger and only 6.7% of the total population is fully vaccinated.

To see the updated % of the vaccinations in Italy click here.

As you might already know, Italians can't stand keeping the same PM and government administration for many months so this past February we changed administration again, and they are rather optimistic aiming to reopen the whole country to tourism by June 2nd. 

Who knows what Italy will be like by then?

In these past months, many businesses have closed for good, many people are about to lose their jobs and lots of businesses couldn't operate because 'non essential' or were very limited.

January and February Italy skipped her ordinary 'white weeks' so our ski resorts on the mountains are in deep economical crisis. Eateries of all kind have been open only for take away for so many weeks we can't even remember last time our restaurants were open at lunch only; as for dinner, our restaurants haven't been closed for months! After all, we all know that Covid19, the virus with the crown loves eating out only at dinner but sleeps in in the morning and just has a latte for brunch.

Pools, gyms, all theaters, museums, amusement parks, stadiums seem like a fading memory from a life swallowed by the pandemic.

In 2021 Italy will see another high school final exam modified because of covid19: this version will be 'only the oral exam'. Not sure why we still have it, given the times have changed so much since 1923 when it was first introduced (!) but not even this pandemic was enough to update the Italian school system, our curricula nor teaching style.

Seeing the glass half empty is too easy, especially when all the EU countries are exactly in our same situation, so we won't be wining anymore, but one year later, we still had kids learning online, and only a few weeks of in classroom instruction for the high schoolers.

Italians are pretty resilient, no matter what the restrictions imposed by our government are, we enjoy the small things in life: walking in the sun, grabbing a cappuccino to go - you friends who live outside of Italy can't even imagine how blessed we feel to be able to savor our coffee shop espresso in the morning!! We do have to practice our art of juggling the croissant and the hot paper cup but at least we have this option!!

We still crowd the gelato shops in the afternoons, God bless all the gelato makers for this tiny big luxury of ours: in 2020 we couldn't even say 'cono gelato' or gelato cone, because we could only order gelato by the kg to be delivered in all safety at our doors.

Our trees are now fully covered in large green leaves, our magnolia trees are in full bloom as well as the cherry trees. Despite the unseasonal cold, we keep our spirits up thinking about last year when we reopened in May, and we sooth each other thinking about last summer, how in the end the infections were very low and many managed to go on vacation.

This 2021 Turin Epicurean Capital edition is being organized considering there are no flights, and we don't know yet when travel among the Italian regions will resume. So, most likely our international guests won't be able to come over to Italy and we'll have to bring Turin to you around the world through our online channels.

Among our many uncertainties we have these certainties and awareness: we are alive and have gelato, therefore we can't really complain at all!

Everything is very slow but still moving on, facemasks are now our second face, buying things online and taking advantage of the unsold shops' deals has become ordinary in Italy too.

Not touching, hugging each other nor shaking hands is a new normal too and to be honest, we got to somewhat appreciate our isolated privacy, even if nobody doubts we all spring back to our old habits as soon as we are given the chance!

Life is short and at its full it should be always experienced!

So amici, don't fear: the EU is getting slowly vaccinated, flights will come back en masse to satisfy our traveling needs and the next few months will be as educational as the past ones.

Keep visualizing yourselves in Turin because we are all waiting for you and are ready to share it with you!

 

Check out:

• our youtube channel with our Italian videos and workouts of yoga, yogalates, pilates plus videos about Turin 
• our online schedule Italian classes 
• our online schedule of yoga, yogalates, pilates group classes

E-mail Lucia: turinepi@gmail.com