It was the morning of Monday 9 March and Rome’s streets were deserted. Pizzerias lining the high streets were shuttered; an empty bus rolled along listlessly in the distance; a stray cat flitted in the cold shadows. Had the coronavirus outbreak in Italy’s north succeeded in grinding even the Eternal City to a standstill?
Not quite yet. “The shops are just closed because it’s early,” explained the cashier at the tobacconist, the only store still open. The countrywide lockdown had yet to be implemented; it would be announced later that evening, after strict measures in the north failed to curb the number of deaths. But even before the draconian measures were set out, Rome, too, was contaminated.
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