'We don't give up:' How Italians are coping with the ongoing coronavirus crisis

Tourist hotspot Venice is now a ghost town. The water’s clearer but businesses are going bust. We go inside northern Italy's COVID-19 crisis to see how the area has changed and how locals are coping.

Source: Dateline

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Piazza San Marco looks vast, grey and empty. Normally one of the most visited squares in Italy, today no tourists can be seen in the square home to Venice’s basilica.

Although the increase in Italy’s day to day COVID-19 cases has been slowing, much of the country, including Venice, remains in lockdown.

With restaurants and bars shuttered, hotels closed, flights and international trains suspended, there are no tourists left in town.

Venice's famous fish market is located near the Rialto Bridge.

Normally, it’s a bustling market with vendors fighting for the attention of buyers - selling to restaurants, hotels, locals and tourists.

Today, only a few remain - and for fishmonger Matteo Zani, it's not business as usual.

“I've never experienced anything like this before - not during the 35 years I've been here,” he said.

“No flood or other catastrophe has ever hit us this hard. We Venetians normally

smile in the face of disaster. But you just don't know how to deal with this.”

Northern Italy feels the pinch

In the northern city of Bergamo, in Italy’s Lombardy region, the Central Piazza Vecchia is lined with cafes.

Marcello Menaudi runs the Café del Tasso. His café has been operating at the site for more than 500 years - and has only closed in times of war.

The pandemic has forced it to shut down again.

Italy has had more than 15,000 deaths - with two thirds of them in Lombardy alone.

More than 10,000 people have already been treated in hospitals in the region, putting immense pressure on local hospitals and health care workers.

But Marcello remains optimistic and is looking to the future

“We'll reopen the café once it's all over. And the whole family will work here again.

“Even the government - they’ve really done everything possible and are doing a good job. Prime Minister Conte and all the others.

“Step by step we'll start anew.”

Others in the community have risen to the challenges posed by the pandemic.

In Sterzing, 20 kilometres from the Austrian border, tinsmith Peter Trenkwalder came up with a solution to avoid laying off his staff.

His team of 20 now build screens from plastics and metal to protect shop owners from customers who may be carrying the coronavirus.

“No, we don't give up. We build these walls and drive from house to house.

“They were immediately bought by banks and businesses. Then we saw that many need this. We changed our whole production from one day to the next.”

Come form of life return

The lockdown in Italy has had an unintended side-effect - residents of Venice say the abrupt reduction in the number of tourists coming to the city is making its famous canals cleaner than they have been for years.

With boat traffic at a minimum, and cruise ships banned, the silt has settled.

Locals say it’s a nice side-effect of the lockdown, but they look forward to the day when Venice - along with the rest of the world - is again open for business.

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