Advertisement

Postcard from Rome: Old habits die hard for smokers in face masks

Residential streets are still empty despite a steady easing of lockdown
Residential streets are still empty despite a steady easing of lockdown

MONDAY

Rome is coming back to life but it’s a slow process. Shops, bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen on May 18 but many remain closed. Opposite the Trevi Fountain, I duck into a bakery that has reopened. “It’s barely worth it because there are so few tourists and yet we still have to pay the staff’s wages and our bills,” says the woman behind the till. “We’re really struggling.” At this time of the year, the piazza in front of the Baroque fountain would normally be packed. But I count just 16 people milling around – four are tourists and the rest are local office workers, grabbing a panino for lunch. A couple of bored soldiers pass the time by looking at young women strolling past and adjusting their red berets to just the right angle. For the first time since I moved to Rome a decade ago, I’m able to cycle through the piazza – usually it’s far too crowded.

Nick Squires is The Telegraph's Italy correspondent and lives in Rome with his family - Nick Squires
Nick Squires is The Telegraph's Italy correspondent and lives in Rome with his family - Nick Squires

TUESDAY

I would say 90% of people out on the streets of the city are wearing face masks. Even though the number of deaths and infections from coronavirus was never very high in the capital, people are still taking the threat very seriously. But other types of risky business – which were in abeyance during lockdown – are back with a vengeance. Riding my bike along a busy street by the Tiber, I get into a row with a young man who is texting while driving. Drivers ignore red lights, people jaywalk while squinting at their phones. Outside a café, a young mother appears, a surgical mask pulled tightly over her mouth and nose. She vigorously rubs her hands with sanitizing gel…and then pulls down her mask, lights a cigarette, and inhales deeply. A friend said she saw a man wearing a surgical mask with a small hole cut into it – just big enough for a ciggie. It’s not Covid-19 that will kill the average Roman, but lung cancer and traffic accidents.

Italy’s lockdown has eased substantially but without tourists Rome’s historic centre remains very quiet  - Nick Squires
Italy’s lockdown has eased substantially but without tourists Rome’s historic centre remains very quiet - Nick Squires

WEDNESDAY

It’s a rare privilege to see Rome this empty, its streets devoid of tourists. It’s like stepping back to the 1950s, before cheap air travel and mass tourism. Flights in and out of Italy won’t resume until mid-June. In Trastevere, the area where we live, narrow cobbled lanes that are normally bustling are almost deserted. I bike to the Spanish Steps and there is just a handful of people milling around – almost outnumbered by the police and soldiers on patrol. The same is true of Piazza del Popolo, which is dominated by an enormous ancient Egyptian obelisk. It’s wonderful to bike around but I feel a surge of guilt - the city is empty because of a pandemic that has killed 33,000 people and left the economy in pieces.

The piazza in front of the Pantheon, a former Roman temple, in the historic centre of Rome - Nick Squires
The piazza in front of the Pantheon, a former Roman temple, in the historic centre of Rome - Nick Squires

THURSDAY

Everywhere you go there are social distancing measures in place. In bars and cafes, tape is stuck to the floor telling you where to stand. It’s obligatory to wear a mask – even when buying a newspaper from the ubiquitous kiosks that sell papers, magazines, bus tickets and small toys. At least these businesses are open. Many are not, amid predictions that Italy’s GDP will shrink 10% this year as a result of the crisis. “Without help from the government, we cannot reopen” is a notice that you see in the windows of lots of shops and restaurants.

Designer masks in a shop in Testaccio, a district of Rome on the banks of the Tiber - Nick Squires
Designer masks in a shop in Testaccio, a district of Rome on the banks of the Tiber - Nick Squires

FRIDAY

Mask wearing is being taken really seriously. A friend was on a bus today when passengers started complaining that a woman was not wearing one. The driver promptly pulled over to the side of the road and booted her off.

While the tourist sights of Rome’s historic centre are still almost deserted, things are much busier in ordinary residential areas. I venture out for a couple of beers with a friend in Testaccio, a district along the Tiber, and the main piazza is packed – adults chatting, their kids playing football or riding scooters. As I leave, I bump into the area’s biggest celebrity –a plump pink pig called Dior, owned by a middle-aged woman who trails him around on a lead. It’s nice to know the pampered porker survived the pandemic.