Phase 1.5, as many Italians are calling it, is marked by hesitancy and awkward compromises
MAGDA VERGARI, co-owner of the Bar La Lastra in the hills above Florence, usually sells 80 to 100 pastries a day. “Now, I’m ordering 20,” she says with a resigned air. Despite an easing of Italy’s strict covid-19 lockdown on May 4th, her sales of coffee are also running at a quarter of the normal level. But then customers are not allowed to enjoy their breakfast cappuccino and brioche at the counter.
At least two reasons help explain the hesitancy of what many Italians call Phase 1.5. The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, faces contrasting fears: of infection on the one hand, and of impoverishment and bankruptcy on the other. Until Britain narrowly overtook it on May 5th, Italy had recorded more deaths than any other country in Europe: 29,315 by that day.
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