COVID-19 Diaries: Young Italians Are Over Social Distancing

The 20-something Italian is having none of it. For the woman and her friends relishing the relief of a cool August breeze at a bar in a medieval piazza, the coronavirus pandemic is much ado about nothing. A means solely to control them and empower bureaucrats. While the stones beneath her feet cooled in the evening air, the young woman became angry as she declaimed against the coronavirus restrictions. “It is all about politics,” she said emphatically when I asked why she and her friends were congregating in such large numbers, embracing and canoodling in defiance of social distancing advice.