Lockdown in Italy, 19 March 2020

Originally posted on my Facebook page on 19 March

I've been pondering the cultural differences between Italians and Australians a lot lately. In normal times we would name such things as the tendency of the Italians to talk with their hands (which is a secret language I am yet to comprehend) 🤔 or the tendency of us Aussies to give everyone a nickname 🤨 

But it's not until you find yourself in extraordinary circumstances that you see the deeper differences.

Yesterday we locked ourselves out of our house. As the door went click we realised we were on the balcony with no key, no phone and no idea what to do next! Our hosting family lives 6km away and even if we found someone with a phone, we had no idea of their number. But as we wandered aimlessly around the outside of the house, I could hear the neighbor on her balcony.

I popped my head out "Scusi signora," and proceeded in my very basic Italian to explain our "piccolo problemo". In the back of my mind I know I was waiting for the dreaded moment when she would shake her head and tell me that she had no idea how to contact them. But of course she nodded and smiled and immediately picked up her phone and rang our hosts, her neighbor. I listened as they chatted for a few long minutes about life under lockdown, a very neighbourly exchange of important family updates, then finally our dilemma was explained. "They come now," she advised me (in Italian, but I understood) and calmly went back to her activities.

I wondered later at my expectation that neighbors would not know each other. I think it is my experience that this is too often the case in my own home town, or maybe that's just a big city thing. However it seems Italians are much more deeply connected to each other. It's something I've noticed around 5-6pm every evening in every town we've visited; locals take to the main streets to walk and talk no matter what the season. Social distancing has forced them to find new ways to feed this need, as evidenced by the recent videos of Italians singing on balconies.

I think that social distancing might have a surprising effect on Australians too. By being forced to limit our movements we become more aware of our home surroundings and of the people living nearby. And strangely enough, the fact that you cannot gather makes the desire to connect even stronger. I think we'll become closer to our neighbors rather than more distant, and I hope we will support each other as true neighbors do.