For SLO native living in Italy, life amid coronavirus is horrifying, isolating and beautiful
Emily Tedone should be living her dream life in Italy, after an overseas job led to meeting her future husband, having a baby and putting down roots in a small northern town.
Instead, she finds herself in the middle of the world’s worst coronavirus nightmare, where COVID-19 has killed more than 6,800 people and infected nearly 70,000.
The country is in the midst of a strict lockdown, with Italians barely able to leave their homes amid conditions that feel like war time.
It has the highest reported number of deaths due to coronavirus of any nation, far outpacing China’s reported fatalities of more than 3,200.
Through all the fear and isolation, however, Tedone, a San Luis Obispo native and 2006 SLO High grad, has maintained a sense of balance and an uncanny appreciation for her many blessings.
“I try to find the beauty in life as it is now, because there is a lot of beauty,” Tedone said. “I want to spread positivity.”
Tedone, 31, lives in the town of Sassuolo north of Florence, after moving to Italy seven years ago to work as an au pair.
She’s now on maternity leave from an office job, living in a home she shares with her Italian husband Riccardo Capelli and their 5-month-old son, Leonardo.
The Cuesta College and Cal State Northridge graduate has had a front-row seat to the pandemic, observing firsthand how the situation shifted dramatically after coronavirus cases started to mount in late February.
“Italians have pretty strong opinions about things,” Tedone said in an online video interview with The Tribune. “At first, they were saying, ‘I’m not worried about coronavirus. I’m going about my life.’ Now, they’re saying, ‘Everybody needs to stay at home and stick to the rules.’”
Death is all around in Italy
To be sure, the stories and images coming out of Italy are grim.
Recent news accounts showed rows of military trucks transporting scores of dead bodies for cremation from hospitals in the northern city of Bergamo near Milan.
Those images were “dark and awful,” Tedone said, and dominated the news cycle, jarring people into a “state of disbelief.”
“People can’t believe what our lives have become, and what they’re seeing reported,” Tedone said. “It’s horror. They are openly calling it war on the news. And I see the similarities — many deaths, future is uncertain, great sacrifice on the nation’s part. What they hope for is that Italy comes out united like they did after the Second World War.”
Her town hasn’t had many COVID-19 cases in comparison to the other cities, but “our hospital is full ... from taking patients in from nearby towns,” she said.
As a young mother, Tedone’s life at home the past few months has not changed much from before the coronavirus outbreak began to now — she spends a lot of time with family and or in their yard, along with walking four doors down to visit her in-laws’ at their home. She’s on maternity leave from her job with a a business that makes vibrating sieves.
There, she watches as her father-in-law cleans incessantly while rattling on about health and safety.
“He disinfects every item from grocery shopping and started wrapping everything in plastic, even bananas,” Tedone said. “He believes there will be no more food by the end of this. He believes the quarantine will last two years. He’s very drastic.”
How Italians are coping with coronavirus
By many accounts, Italians were slow to respond to social distancing guidance, with many continuing to gather at coffee shops, restaurants and bars. They still played soccer and meet for card games.
“It’s such a close country culturally,” Tedone said. “Streets are much narrower. It’s hard to avoid people with that six feet of separation here.”
But now, checkpoints have been set up, and people can be stopped to examine their grocery receipts to make sure they were shopping for needed supplies and not just out for a stroll.
Like others in Italy, Tedone must carry personal identification to go outside.
People can wander no more than 200 meters (about 650 feet) from their home, unless it’s for essential needs like groceries or medicine, or to go to the hospital or essential employment.
At the grocery store, the lines are long and limited numbers of people are allowed in, Tedone said. Nearly all shoppers wear masks, and people in close proximity look suspiciously at one another.
“I have seen many different reactions from people, but the most common is worry,” Tedone said. “... Worried for their people, economy, and worried how much longer this could go on.”
No one is immune from the virus’ impacts.
In the medical community, Tedone said, all different types of doctors and nurses have been assigned to coronavirus cases, and even med students have been deployed to the hospitals, she said.
“We’re feeling very terrible for the doctors and nurses,” Tedone said. “There’s overcrowding in the hospitals. Mothers are giving birth at home now because they don’t want to go to the hospital.”
At work, her manager, a man in his 40s, contracted the virus and has been equipped with a plastic oxygen mask to help him breathe.
Despite all of the challenges, Tedone said she doesn’t want to let the stress consume her.
She said she recently reflected on the Italian film “Life is Beautiful,” set during the Holocaust.
“(The main character played by Roberto Benigni) is able to find ways to save his son’s innocence (in a concentration camp),” Tedone said. “When I stop to think about things here, there is running water and a garden and you see kids playing in the driveway, and you really start to add things up. Life is beautiful.”
Impact of coronavirus on American life
Although she’s a world away from the Central Coast, Tedone said she speaks to her mother in San Luis Obispo daily by phone, and received a call from her sister during an interview with The Tribune.
She doesn’t believe America will face the same devastation that Italy has because the U.S. has more resources and a better economy, and many people tend to be follow social distancing protocols.
She did, however, find it alarming to see news footage of spring breakers flocking to beaches in Florida.
“I saw a video of a young man saying, ‘Well, if I get the virus, I get the virus.’ But the issue is a bigger one: He could spread the virus to many people and put hospitals under too much stress, like in Italy,” Tedone said.
Her advice for Americans is the same she adheres to herself: Don’t give in to panic.
“For example, when I tell Italians that America has run out of toilet paper, they are perplexed because this is not even a gastrointestinal virus,” she said. “Here, water was the first item that flew off the shelves.”
In a recent email to family members, Tedone shared her thoughts about staying happy and maintaining and overall postive outlook: “I had a smile plastered on my face while walking Leo in the driveway yesterday because it was a lovely afternoon. I saw the pine trees and Ricky on the balcony with Grandma, and I thought, ‘Ah, this is it.”
She added: “I know this will pass, and when it does, the little things (like going to a coffee shop and getting a pastry on a Saturday morning) are going to feel wonderful.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2020 at 4:45 AM.
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