- Title: Lights from their windows, Italians defy coronavirus lockdown
- Date: 15th March 2020
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (MARCH 15, 2020) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) ITALIAN FLAG HUNG FROM BALCONY, PEOPLE CHEERING AND WAVING LIT UP SMARTPHONES MAN WALKING UP AND DOWN BALCONY HOLDING UP LIT UP SMARTPHONE PEOPLE ON BALCONIES SHOUTING AND WAVING LIGHTS PEOPLE CLAPPING AND WAVING FROM WINDOW / PEOPLE WAVING SMARTPHONES FROM BALCONY WOMAN LOOKING OUT OF WINDOW, ANOTHER WOMAN VIDEO CALLING A FRIEND AND SHOWING THEM VIEW, NEXT TO ANOTHER PERSON WITH LIT UP SMARTPHONE PEOPLE WAVING LIGHTS FROM BALCONY VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CHEERING AND CLAPPING FROM BALCONIES WAVING LIGHTS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ON BALCONY DANCING WAVING LIT UP SMARTPHONE
- Embargoed: 30th March 2020 00:06
- Keywords: Italy andratuttobene coronavirus coronavirus crisis flash mob flashmob illuminate Italy light up Italy lockdown quarantine
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- City: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVA001C55YFK7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Italians showed their resilience once again on Sunday (March 15) night as they came together from isolation stuck at home to their windows and balconies up and down the country to wave lights and cheer as part of another flash mob.
Streets across Italy have become silent under lockdown after the government imposed an unprecedented series of controls, banning public gatherings, forbidding all but essential travel and telling people to stay at home.
But on Sunday night, silent pitch-black streets were brought to life as Italians up and down the country took part in a 'Light up Italy' flash mob at 9 p.m. (2000 GMT), turning on lights of their smartphones and waving them from their windows.
Daily flash mobs, singing the national anthem, playing instruments, dancing and applauding doctors and nurses from windows and balconies have become a daily part of Italian life in quarantine, and the moving positivity of their bravery in the crisis has made many videos go viral.
The country recorded 368 new deaths from the virus outbreak on Sunday as the total rose to 1,809 from 1,441 a day earlier, the country's civil protection authority said, while the number of positive cases rose to 24,747.
(Production: Remo Casilli, Cristiano Corvino, Emily Roe) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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