The first is the Io Resto A Casa hashtag (I’m staying at home) first launched by the government to invite all Italians to stay at their home to limit the contagion and the spreading of the virus, while the second one is Andra’ Tutto Bene (Everything will be all right), a sentence full of hope that we are now writing on social media, on the shutters of closed cafés, shops and restaurants and on banners hanging from our balconies.
The Io Resto A Casa hashtag was launched on television by the Italian government with the help of many Italian celebrities (singers, musicians, TV presenters, writers and actors mostly) who ‘opened the doors’ of their homes showing that they were following the rules by staying at home and therefore being a role model to look up to.
These celebrities organized live jamming sessions, tutorials and show cooking from their homes and they also gave tips to people on how to spend their time at home without getting bored or discouraged.
They also tried to give tips to people on how to rediscover spending time at home with the family and how to use this time in the best way to learn something, play with the kids or discover new indoor hobbies.
The Andra’ Tutto Bene motto has an origin wrapped in a romantic mystery instead.
It seems that the inhabitants of some municipalities in Lombardy, the first region affected by the emergency here in Italy and the region with the most cases, one morning at the beginning of March, started finding several post-its messages with this ‘Andra’ Tutto Bene’ on their doors together with the hand drawing of a little heart.
Dozens of messages like that have been found in different areas of Lombardy, here and there, on church doors or at bus stops, on shop windows or on benches in public parks and even on intercoms.
The author of this initiative remained anonymous and still is, nobody came forward even after the news made a reportage about this.
It became a message of hope in times of coronavirus and it reminded us of the power of small gestures. It was a nice and selfless gesture to encourage other people without asking for anything in return and it was a message symbolizing that we are all on the same boat, struggling with the same difficulties and it mostly meant that the most important thing is empathy, even among strangers.
It was a note that also wanted to communicate that we are all together and close to each other even if we must keep a physical distance and get isolated from everybody in our homes.
In many homes we started copying the idea, drawing rainbows and writing Andra’ Tutto Bene to hang it out the window for the few passersby out there or for our neighbors to give each other hope and to give a touch of color to these gray long days in quarantine.
Our Prime Minister said in a conference that we are at war against an invisible enemy, but that we shall remember that our grandparents were asked to depart to go fighting during the war, we instead are simply asked to stay on the sofa and play table games.
Some TV channels with a predominantly under age audience have also prepared some very cute cartoon-like TV commercials with funky hippos and monster-like viruses to explain the situation to the kids, telling them how to properly wash their hands and stating the importance of staying at home to defeat this ‘monster virus.’
Let’s hope we all do defeat this bad monster as soon as possible!
Our own Andra’ Tutto Bene banner
