“What do we do? Shall we go to Music or Peter Pan?”. “Music, Music: I have managed two reduced admissions. We go to the Peter another evening. We can do it all.” Thursday 13 August: midnight has just passed and Nicolò and Giacomo, 40 years old together, arrived in Riccione, from Bergamo, only a few hours ago. They had been dreaming of this vacation for months. They do not know, neither they nor all the other guys who are marching towards the entrance of the disco, that the last ‘free’ night awaits them. Because from tonight, due to the new ordinance passed by the Emilia Romagna Region, the mask will no longer be an optional, perhaps to be worn all evening on the elbow or on the wrist. From tonight we dance only in masks, pardon in masks. To wear at any time, in any situation: from when you are in line …
“What do we do? Shall we go to Music or Peter Pan?”. “Music, Music: I have managed two reduced admissions. We go to the Peter another evening. We can do it all.” Thursday 13 August: midnight has just passed and Nicolò and Giacomo, 40 years old together, arrived in Riccione, from Bergamo, only a few hours ago. They had been dreaming of this vacation for months. They do not know, neither they nor all the other guys who are marching towards the entrance of the disco, that the last ‘free’ night awaits them. Because from tonight, due to the new ordinance launched by the Emilia Romagna Region, the mask will no longer be an optional, perhaps to be worn all evening on the elbow or wrist. From tonight we dance only in masks, pardon in masks. To wear at any time, in any situation: from when you are in line at the entrance to when you go wild on the track. And to be on the safe side, the ordinance requires locals to halve the capacity.
So the rules of the night change from today. To think that the mask was already mandatory before, on the disc, if it was not possible to maintain the right distance. “But what’s the point of wearing the mask in the disco? I wear it only when strictly necessary”, says Giorgia, from Modena, 20 years old. “Then we should always wear it, even when we walk in Viale Ceccarini (the good ‘living room’ of Riccione, with trendy shops and restaurants): there is more crowding there than in the disco”, attacks her friend Matilde, one year more young man, while drinking his gin and tonic. And then, “this virus, are we sure it’s so dangerous? There was too much alarmism, we can’t always stay closed in the house“.
The problem doesn’t really arise if you’re 20 or so. Kids, to give up going out and going dancing, don’t want to hear about it. Sara, Noemi and Manuela chose the holiday in Riccione “only because we knew that there were several open disco. Otherwise we didn’t come here”. “For heaven’s sake – adds Sara – just the spacing and the mask, but let us have fun. as soon as I get home, I take the test for Covid“.
The images of the coffins queuing on the streets of Bergamo already seem a pale memory for many children. “I’m not saying the virus isn’t dangerous, but … it’s exaggerating. How many young people are actually infected? And how many are hospitalized?“, urges Marco 21 year old from Reggio Emilia. As he speaks, the deejay of Musica repeats for the umpteenth time:” Guys, wear masks and keep your distance. “Easy to say from the console, difficult to enforce it. Even if at Musica they give you a gift. the mask and measure your temperature before you even enter, in the parking lot or in the driveway.
Marco and Melissa, a Milanese couple, are sitting in a corner, embracing each other, chatting. Impossible not to notice them: they are among the few with the mask. “Of course – says Melissa – you never know. With all these people”. They came to the disco with some friends, but “we don’t want to dance. There are too many guys on the dance floor, too many …”. For Diletta, 24 year old from Ancona, “the premises had to be reopened with different rules. The gatherings are continuous. There is no security”. Christian, 23 years old from Florence, university student and former deejay, thinks so too, who arrived at Musica with friends Mirko and Filippo: “The world of the night is very close to my heart, I’ve worked on it, but I’m honest: discos don’t they still needed to be reopened, it’s impossible to keep your distance. And what’s the point of allowing us to dance and stop us from going to university? “. Nicolò, 22 years old from Bologna, thinks like him: “It’s absurd, it’s inconsistent: I have to graduate, I can’t go to university to prepare my thesis, but I can go to the disco … Long live the Italy of contradictions “.
We point out to him and Christian that they are the first to contradict each other, since they went to the disco anyway. “Oh yes, come on – they blush -. Couldn’t we always stay indoors?”.
© All rights reserved
–
–
