life with covid19

At the end of this May 2020, everything in Italy has reopened except for the museums, the theaters and the movie theaters that will reopen on June 3rd.
As for the schools... nobody knows yet, but more and more teachers and parents are protesting to resume the school in September because the Italian long distance learning system isn't working at all, many students are left behind or drop out of school, many teachers left their books at school (!) and naturally such books don't come with ancillary materials online. No, don't make me write about the teachers who ask their students to text them the pictures of their notebooks 😖

the very first spritz in Piazza Vittorio on May 23

turinepi20 with covid19

As we are approaching the 7th edition of Turin Epicurean Capital, it is clear that most of our guests will be stuck in their own countries faraway from Turin but... others living in Italy or Europe though, might actually love to come over and have a taste of a regular trip away from their lock down memories.

TurinEpi19: (left to right) Christina Conte, Jan Egan, Cynthia McCloud Woodman, Benedetta 

Oggero and Reine Bouton enjoying one of the TurinEpi lunches literally al fresco of the Turin's 

arches despite the scorching 44C-111F

Alfabeto covid19

Ciao a tutti i nostri amici che studiano italiano o che riescono a leggerlo e a capirlo 🙋

Su Instagram, Facebook e YouTube abbiamo iniziato a pubblicare una serie di videolezioni di italiano per chi ha la passione per l'Italia e la nostra lingua.

La prima lezione è stata sull'alfabeto del covid19 che in italiano chiamiamo solo 'covid' o coronavirus perchè l'altro covid in italiano e' chiamato SARS.

COVID19 Easter

This will go down in history as the covid19 Easter when the Easter bunny was challenged to wear a face mask and gloves to hide the eggs in people's apartments.

Piazza San Carlo in this half XL choco egg of Caffé Torino in 2015

COVID19 lessons

March 25th was the deadline of the Italian lock down: everyone homebound, except for the super essential businesses such as pharmacies, food and other few essential shops. Then, the full factory shut down came: all but 80 vital industrial productions were shut down to keep the workers safe at home, in Piedmont this means 1 out 3 factories is closed.

Now Italy is surfing the COVID19 waves as they come and is deciding according to the immediate needs.

Many balconies all around Italy have the Italian flag, this one has the Chinese one too

COVID19 lifestyle

Italy is in covid19 mood since February 23, when people emptied the grocery stores for the first time.
Italians stocked up on all the pasta shapes but smooth penne, all sorts of pasta sauces, canned foods, as many bananas as the 15th century sailors going to the New World, detergents and disinfectants, frozen foods and all the antibacterial products available.

After the first PM, Mr Conte's announcement, all of a sudden Italy discovered her love for Amuchina the main local brand of antibacterial gels and disinfectants.

San Carlo Borromeo church

Turin is the city of the Holy Shroud and even though our many churches spanning from 11th century to these days may look unassuming, once you get inside, you do get breathless by the gold, colorful marbles and especially by the architecture 😍

Piazza San Carlo, Turin's twin churches: San Carlo Borromeo on the right, Santa Cristina on the left