Living in a Red Zone

By Elisa Checcacci, Student Services Coordinator

A week ago I received a message from a friend saying “we are red” and I didn’t understand what it meant. I had spent the day talking to students, colleagues, and friends about how the number of COVID-19 cases were increasing at a lower rate and I was optimistic we wouldn’t have to suffer further restrictions.

The meaning of the message sunk in with the realization that I had been overly optimistic. We would become a red zone! My heart skipped a bit, memories of the lockdown in the Spring coming back in a rush. Empty streets, closed shops, an unmanageable number of video calls, going out just to throw out the garbage or to go food shopping once a week and being pretty nervous when I did so. I learned a lot from that experience, but nooooooooo, please, noooooooooo, I thought, not agaaaaaiiiiinnnnn.

But my refusal to accept the red zone didn’t stop it from becoming a reality last Sunday, and almost a week into this new life I am happy to report that it is very different from the lockdown we experienced in the Spring.

A much higher number of shops are still open! We can grab a coffee or cappuccino on the go (I try to limit my single-use plastic consumption and stay away from those disposable cups – reusable cups not being allowed for sanitary reasons – but if I really need a coffee I know I can get one, and that’s already enough to lift my spirits), and pick up food from our favorite restaurants, Panino places, etc. We can go to the hairdresser and barbershop, to bookshops, to the florists. Shops selling make-up, perfumes, and underwear/tights/socks are also open. But I was the happiest when I saw that casalinghi shops are open. They are traditional shops where you buy things for the kitchen, which comes in handy when you, like me, go from eating out all the time to cooking most of your meals! I highly recommend visiting this one, still managed by the same family that opened it in 1880 and with the 95-year-old owner still walking around the isles and not trusting her children (in their 60s!) to do the job alone. For more international options, Tiger is also open.

Of course, shops that were open in the Spring are also open now like pharmacies, fruit and vegetable markets, bakeries, newsstands, and supermarkets.

Another main difference is that we can just go out for a walk. It needs to be near home, but it’s allowed. And it makes a huge difference. The streets of Florence are very quiet and walking around these majestic buildings with all the space and time to appreciate them and really take them in is a truly unforgettable experience. I keep noticing things that I had never seen before. On the other hand, being limited in how far we can go means that I cannot go to the Cascine park or on one of my long walks up Bello Sguardo to be in nature, nor meet with friends who live in different parts of the city.

Teaching has moved on-line for all theoretical classes, while labs and studios are still open for students to practice and do independent learning. We can still meet students at a safe distance and I still go to work in the office, but I also work from home some days.

Whenever we go out, we have to have a form with us where we self-certify the reason for our movements, which the police might ask for if they stop us on the street, but there will be no problems as long as we have a good reason to be out.

This is definitely not how I hoped my Autumn would be, and there is a long list of things that I miss and cannot wait to be able to do again. However, I am relieved that “red zone” and “lockdown” are not the same thing and that some of the pleasures that come from being able to go out are still accessible to us.