QUARANTINED – The great lockdown of Milan. Photo Reportage

QUARANTINED

The great lockdown

Milan, Italy

Wednesday 18 of March 2020, 16:15.

From more than one week now the city of Milan, for the first time in its modern history, it’s under lockdown.

QUARANTINED is a tour/photo reportage of Milan, the European epicentre of the pandemic explosion of the virus covid-19.

The “Città Studi” neighbourhood may be considered the young soul of Milan, in fact, every day thousands and thousands of students are populating its streets. Now, it is an urban desert.

March is one of the most active months of the university calendar, with graduations, exam and classes going on simultaneously. In March 2020 the situation in front of the Politecnico di Milano is the following: a sunny desert.

Few movements are visible around the city, most of them are the ones of public transport. A key necessity for many.

One of the historical tram line of Milan, running empty.

The metro stop of Piola, Politecnico – University, one of the busiest stops on the green line.

Among the others, two of the “fundamental” services that are still operating are supermarkets and delivery services.

A rider of Glovo taking advantage of the empty metro line to fastly move his bike from one side to the other of the city. In order to be ready for another delivery.

Pasta, potatoes and toilet paper were the first goods to disappear from the shelves. At the biggest supermarkets, the waiting time is longer than one hour.

Egoism is the first element to shine during social emergencies.

Hope to come back to normality is what everybody’s asking for…

Milan was the subject of a transformation, it went from being the economic centre of the country to the epicentre of a disaster. One of the city most important core is now missing: its vitality. Once the great lockdown will be over and we will return to normality, how “normal” this will be?

GiovFranco