Coronavirus brings tension and prejudice to Italy’s beaches – The Guardian

Tensions are breaking out on beaches and tourists from Lombardy have reported instances of discrimination as Italys first holiday season since the coronavirus outbreak gets under way.

Residents of Codogno, in Lodi province, the first town in the countrys badly affected Lombardy region to be quarantined, have claimed attempts to book holidays elsewhere in Italy were rebuffed after they revealed they would be travelling from a former red zone.

Among them was Davide Passerini, who lives in Codogno but is mayor of the small town of Fombio, another area quarantined early. His accommodation booking for a weekend away in Tuscany was rejected after the owner discovered he was from Codogno.

Even if these are rare episodes, the prejudice leaves you feeling very bitter, Passerini said. It is the result of ignorance among those who dont understand that people coming from the first red zones are today probably less likely to bring the virus because the level of contagion in these places is now close to zero and has been for a long time. But in the minds of some people, Codogno remains synonymous with infectious disease.

During a phone-in to an Italian radio show last week, a couple from another area hard-hit by the virus spoke about being turned away at a hotel reception with the excuse that the establishment was fully booked.

At the same time, tempers are rising as people jostle for space on packed public beaches, where safety rules are rarely observed. On a beach in Ostia, near Rome, last weekend a 20-year-old woman was slapped after she asked a fellow beachgoer to move his towel because there was no safe distance between them.

Marina Marzari, a psychologist from Veneto, said her recent experience at a beach in the Marche region went from paradise to hell within a few hours as large groups descended throughout the day.

It was the most dense crowd Ive ever experienced, she said. There were no masks and not even the slightest distancing being respected. Its really dangerous.

Marzari called the local police several times but she said nobody came to patrol the beach. Weve all made sacrifices in recent months but feel taken for a ride after having stayed at home for so long, as when we go out situations like this arent made safe. If I get sick due to something similar I will press charges against the state.

Safety rules at privately run establishments, where people can rent loungers and umbrellas, have been easier to maintain.

Even though requirements are similar for free beaches people can gather in groups of no more than four people, maintaining a 1.5-metre distance from others, and beach games are banned they have been more difficult to enforce.

But some areas are starting to take action. Authorities on Ischia, an island off Naples, last week imposed an exclusion law, known as a daspo in Italy, that will ban those who flout safety regulations from the beach for the rest of the summer season.

Enzo Ferrandino, the mayor of Ischia, told local newspapers: The right to go to the beach in safety must be defended. We owe it to those who deserve a little more respect in an island that sometimes lets itself be overwhelmed by selfishness.

In Bordighera, a beach town in Liguria, stewards have been hired to patrol public beaches, and a similar move is being planned by authorities in Salerno, Campania.

The coronavirus transmission rate in Italy has slowed considerably since lockdown restrictions began to be eased in May, despite the emergence of clusters across the country that have mostly been due to imported infections. People have been able to travel between regions since early June.

But as they adapt to living alongside the virus, judgments over the risk have polarised peoples attitudes and behaviour.

When there is strong social anxiety, this is typical, said Giuseppe Pantaleo, a social psychologist at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. So we either treat everyone as a potential source of infection, which has some justification as the data is still so awful in other countries, or we go to the opposite extreme and totally deny the risk.

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Coronavirus brings tension and prejudice to Italy's beaches - The Guardian