Has Italy Beaten COVID-19?

Menicanti attributes Italy's success to surprisingly high levels of compliance with social distancing measures from the Italian people. 'In the beginning, all of us were shocked by the rules. To be locked in, not being able to travel or meet people, that's very strange for us. Italians love crowded places,' Menicanti said. 'But the population, incredibly, has followed the rules.' Other towns that didn't implement such a strict lockdown right away, such as Bergamo and Cremona, were hit harder, and scenes of coffins piling up in churches were burned into the national psyche. Mario Carminati, a priest in Bergamo, told the BBC that the 'sound of ambulance sirens was constant. This was a reminder to be on the lookout, that if you didn't do as they said, you could be next.' 'We don't want to forget what happened,' Carminati said. 'We want it to be a reminder of how to live in a certain way.'