Problems

Phase 2 begins

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In my last post I insensitively described small-business owners (shops, restaurants, hair salons, etc.) as “howling” to reopen.  If I were in their place, I would be howling too.  And the same anguished cries are being heard throughout Italy — in Florence, Rome, Milan, in hill towns and beach resorts and places you’ve never heard of — as the bills and “Overdue Rent” notices continue to drop through the slot in the locked doors of shuttered stores of every kind.  But the reopening is planned in stages, and belonging to a category whose stage has yet to arrive is heating up everybody’s atmosphere.  More on that in my next.

At the beginning of the quarantine in Venice, when silence fell and motion ceased, a few people wrote to me expressing variations on “You must be enjoying the peace and quiet!”  I know they would never have written that to a widow just returning home from the funeral, but it seemed similarly inappropriate.  I understood that they meant that compared to the chaos and unpleasantness of being overrun by tourists, the opposite extreme ought to be a welcome relief.  It wasn’t, it isn’t, it can’t be.  One extreme is a bad correction of another extreme.  Even on the first day of quarantine I realized that the quiet did not signify peace — au very much contraire.  We have listened for two months to a silence that might have been that of the world underwater when you’re trying to see how long you can hold your breath.

But the non-essential small-business owners and artisans and their colleagues and cohorts and conjunctions have been living in a world of -3,000,000 per cent peace and quiet because they’ve been closed for two months — and in many cases, it will be three.  And many of their businesses depend on tourists, which apparently have gone extinct.

Please note: No more tourists isn’t a problem just for Venice.  This is a European, even global, phenomenon.  A recent report by a group of analysts estimated that in the month of March, the tourist income in Europe shrank 68 per cent relative to that month last year.  ENIT, the Italian national tourist agency, reports that bookings for Italy from April 13 to May 24 are down 84.6 per cent relative to the same period last year.  (For the record, bookings to France are down by 82.9 per cent, and to Spain 80.3 per cent.)  ENIT predicts that tourism to Italy won’t be back to pre-2020 levels till at least 2023.

High season?  Where?

What can there be in Venice but tourism?  This is a question that people have been struggling with since before I came here in 1994, and have continued to struggle with as the monster grew and grew, like Audrey in “The Little Shop of Horrors,” constantly bellowing “Feed me!”  I hope somebody has been spending their stuck-at-home time studying whether anything else can keep Venice going, because this is the moment to step forward.

Happily for us, the world is coming back to life in via Garibaldi and environs; the first signs were a very sunny Sunday and the following two days.  More motorboats in the canals, more people out on the street, suddenly children were everywhere, running around and shrieking — it’s great.  It’s like some safety valve suddenly popped open.

Nobody waited for a sign to say “Unchain the children!”  But Sunday evening they were still out at sunset, racing around, having finally tired of covering the street with hopscotch boxes scrawled with yellow chalk.  There are noticeably more bikes and scooters around, too — they must have been the promised prize for not rebelling during two months spent almost exclusively indoors.

Some stores have been opening very gradually.  There were those that remained closed from the first day, and will have to remain closed till the official permission is granted (see chart below).  Others shortened their hours to opening only in the morning.  The supermarket closed early, and remained shut on Sunday.  I’ll be interested to see if that continues.

Over the past week or ten days, a few businesses (the office-supply/giftwrap/school supply store, the children’s clothes shop) were open all day, but only on Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was an adventure trying to keep track of what you could get, and when, but I was surprised at how quickly one could adapt.  The daily round just took more planning, and more willingness to wait in line.

Weeks ago, the big tobacco/toy/lotto shop at the end of via Garibaldi (the two smaller ones stayed open) posted new hours: “From Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM Monday closed.” That didn’t bother us because we don’t smoke, and the various gambling schemes were suspended, so no playing the lottery. That surprised me — I thought the lottery would be the last thing standing in the devastated national economy, but evidently the government was more concerned with other millions and billions that really would keep people going, and not the phantasmagoric winnings that are always just about to come through.
The detergent/cosmetics/housewares store also cut back on hours. Too bad if you forgot to buy your Dead Sea exfoliant in the morning, you’ll just have to wait till tomorrow.
All sorts of stuff for kids, especially glittery garb.
“Emma’s Road ships!” (This in itself is amazing, because the post office on via Garibaldi has been shut since the acqua alta of November, 2019.) The shopowner (Emma, perhaps?) may have had to stay home but she obviously rejected the idea that she couldn’t keep working during lockdown.  “We can make an appointment for a video-call for virtual shopping…It’s possible to request information (photo, prices, sizes and measures) or book the articles in the following ways:  1 Sending a message to our Facebook page, 2  Contacting us via WhatsApp at 3491089086, 3 Calling this number 3924152292.  Shipping is free for all orders that are at least 99 euros or by delivery to your home if you’re in our area.  It’s possible to pay by bank transfer or PayPal.”  She doesn’t intend to leave ANY customer outside in the rain, that’s for sure!
This is progress — the office supply store has moved past the “only Tuesday and Wednesday” phase and now is open every morning from 9:00 to 12:30, but only one person at a time may enter, and must wear mask and gloves, and maintain a distance of two meters between — well, I guess that would be between the one client and the one shopowner.
I suppose it’s good news that funerals can begin to be conducted again. The need to prevent crowds has meant that since February 23, the dear departed departed alone.  This notice doesn’t mention that only a maximum of 15 people will be allowed to attend, and doesn’t indicate who the bouncer at the door is going to be to keep the 16th person out.  No funeral mass, either — those will begin on May 11, but this is a step forward.
These are the rules:  Only up to 15 people can enter.  They must wear a mask.  Enter and leave rapidly without blocking the door.  In church observe the prescribed distance.  Be seated on the pews where there are signs.  Other directions during the religious rite.
As you see, the openings are staggered according to the type of business. The hairdressers are furious;  they’re listed to open June 1, as are restaurants.  But restaurants are making do meanwhile by offering take-away food; it would need someone cleverer than I to organize a take-away haircut.  Or are those called “wigs”?  Shops (such as clothing) and team practice recommence on May 18.  The notice says “No” to playgrounds for children, but they have no idea how via Garibaldi works!

 

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