Italy: Life and love in lockdown Photo stories

The idea to put together these mini photo stories came to us when we were thinking of a way to honour World Health Worker Week. Many thanks to Dacia Capriotti, Francesco Ceci, Maria Rosaria Cifarelli, Luca Moliterni and Antonio Brosco for participating in the project. We appreciate you all!

Since Italy went into strict lockdown on the 9 March we have been communicating, commiserating and cheering each other up from the UK to Italy and back again. The pandemic has reminded us of the need for solidarity across borders.

In Italy, initially, people did not take COVID-19 seriously. People saw the situation in China and never thought it would affect them. We will not make the same mistake again. COVID-19 has made us more sensitive to the world around us and made us aware of how inter-connected we are.

Now Italians have the responsibility to reach out to other countries and stress the gravity of the situation but also to model positive behaviour.

We know that physically distancing ourselves from others by staying at home is a luxury that many people do not have. They may have key worker jobs that help keep our societies functioning. Many people in low- and middle-income countries are casual day labourers. They can’t stay at home and still feed their families. We are luckier than most.

You can live, and you can love in lockdown.

We want to thank all the health workers who are helping to make us safer – all the people risking their lives in shops, as cleaners, as carers, as volunteers giving mutual community aid, as delivery drivers, as paramedics, as nurses, as pharmacists and as doctors.

You are providing an example for us, teaching us, to give more of ourselves and really consider our local and global communities. You deserve better pay, safer working conditions and more respect. We will keep fighting for this. To try and ease your burden we will ALL be staying home. Read the profiles below.

Giuseppe Cesareo and Kate Hawkins