Living in one of the Northern Italian epicentres of Coronavirus, I’ve decided to provide occasional updates to the situation for English-speakers who, for whatever reason, are interested.

There was little reporting about Coronavirus until it really hit Italy – most people I talked to hadn’t even heard about it, but then Italians are an incurious people. It is now a daily event in the media.

I went shopping on Sunday evening (8th March) and although most bars were closed, people were strolling merrily down the narrow city streets, in groups, laughing and kissing and dancing and basically being as Italian as possible.

The next day, I was advised that the police were arresting people for being outdoors without a good reason. On that evening I could hear birdsong in the city centre.

When I went out just now (Tuesday 10th March) the streets were almost totally empty.

I went to a Despar for wine etc. and found the vitamin supplement shelf totally full, so people aren’t panic-buying Vitamin C/D/etc.

In general, the Italians are a feckless childish people who will ignore warnings until the police threaten them with 3 months’ prison.