What a surreal weekend. We started our giro on Saturday from Eataly, the high end shop & restaurant (located in Riva Tommaso Gulli, 1). The café part of the venue was packed full of people, everyone sitting down and chatting away.
After “il solito nero, grazie” by the bar we made our way to Piazza Unità. Cafés and bars did not seem as full as they usually are but there were definitely quite a few people around.
This Sunday morning we made our way to Barcola, mecca of most Triestini on Sundays (or on any sunny day, really) and headed towards Miramare castle which was open in the morning only to find a closed gate and a sign that read they were closed until April 3d. “What’s going on?”
We learned the following: all museums, and libraries are closed all over Italy through April 3d. More importantly, the decree by the government puts 16 million Italians under restrictions. There is no entry or exit out of Milan or Venice (for example) until April 3d, which is a vastly extended “red zone” which doesn’t include Trieste at this time but will however have a huge impact on it. All pubs, cinemas, and theaters across Italy are closed. Restaurants and bars can remain open if they guarantee one meter of space between patrons. It all seemed surreal and dreamlike as we were making our way home through the joyous crowds of Barcola.
