It´s a hard time for italian people.

[colker]

Very sad. The number of deaths is heartbreaking. Italy is the land of beauty.. and land of road cycling. So much they created for us cyclists to enjoy.
To Italy with love.

[roguedog]

Yep. Italy has given the world lots of art and culture and civlilization.

Have you seen this from 3T? A package whose profits will go towards the local hospitals? https://blog.3t.bike/2020/03/13678/3t-elite-zwift-special-offer/

I'd be tempted if it were the Exploro, though I've heard iffy things about the quality. Would be tempted .. just because though. Just not a fan of the Strada.

[colker]

Good call from 3T. I wanted to post a pic of a stem on my og post.. there is nothing more italian than a baroque sometimes absurd but beautifull italiam quill stem.
It´s hard to believe a country as wealthy and old as Italy could be hit so miserably by a virus. Their achilles heel was the indiscipline and irrationality.

[nickl]

Agree with other posts. My wife and I returned from a month in Italy just before New Year’s Day. Spent time mostly in the north plus a few days in Rome and experienced a great deal of positive energy despite the country’s economic doldrums.

I am communicating with a student enrolled in a masters program at the university in Padua. She is extremely positive despite the disruption in her education due to the college’s closure and now living in lockdown. Given what I hear from her the Italians will come out of this stronger than ever. I believe America will do the same.

[estilley]

I spent some time up in Lombardy and Piedmont (hardest hit regions) this past fall.

My second time in Italy but first in the North. I might only go back to the North from now on. It's like the best parts of Italy (Food, culture, art) mixed with the efficiencies of Germany and Switzerland. What more could you want?

Will definitely be going back when I can afford it.

[Davist]

I've spent a lot of time for work in Bergamo and made some long time friends, it's tough.. here's a post from FB, original and translated from this week:

A Bergamo non ci sono più bare.
A Bergamo non c’è più ossigeno.
A Bergamo, fuori il cimitero, c’è la fila di carri funebri.
A Bergamo c’è una sepoltura ogni mezz’ora.
Perdi qualcuno di caro e non puoi neppure salutarlo per l’ultima volta.
Al cimitero si cerca supporto l’un con l’altro guardandosi solo negli occhi.
Noi delle altre persone ultimamente vediamo solo gli occhi perché il naso e la bocca sono coperti da una mascherina.
A Bergamo non si vedono più sorrisi.
Si vive da 3 settimane in equilibrio: da una parte la spinta della natura, forte, che vuole farci crollare, dall’altra quella dei bergamaschi, ancora più forte,che vogliono ricominciare.
Le giornate sono infinite, le nottati insonni. Tutti pensano a qualcosa: i giovani pensano ai nonni, i nonni pensano ai nipoti, gli imprenditori pensavo a come pagare gli stipendi, tutti sogniamo la normalità.
Io non lo so quando tornerà questa normalità ma sicuramente sarà bellissimo trovarci in centro e vederci finalmente sorridere.
#bergamononmolla
❤
Copia ed incolla se sei di Bergamo
Facciamo sentire la nostra voce

In Bergamo there are no more coffins.
There is no oxygen left in Bergamo.
In Bergamo, outside the cemetery, there is a row of hearse wagons.
In Bergamo there is a burial every half hour.
You lose someone dear and you can't even say goodbye for the last time.
At the cemetery you seek support with each other by looking only in the eyes.
We other people lately only see eyes because their nose and mouth are covered in a mask.
In Bergamo you can't see smiles anymore.
We've been living for 3 weeks in balance: on the one hand the push of nature, strong, which wants to make us collapse, on the other that of the Bergamaschi, even stronger, who want to start again.
The days are endless, sleepless nights. Everyone thinks of something: young people think about grandparents, grandparents think about grandchildren, entrepreneurs I was thinking about how to pay salaries, we all dream of normality.
I don't know when this normality will come back but surely it will be beautiful to find us downtown and finally see us smile. Good morning
#bergamononmolla
❤
Copy and paste if you are from Bergamo
Let's hear our voice

[Blue Jays]

My heart breaks for the people of Italy as they shoulder this horrible burden. :-(

[colker]

A video from skytv on a hospital in Bergamo.

https://www.businessinsider.com/video-tour-coronavirus-icu-ward-bergamo-italy-worst-apocalyptic-2020-3

[EliteVelo]

Folks....take this seriously. I spoke with Marco Bertoletti today, after he received my email/call to see how he and his family are doing. Aside from the call, here is his email:

Hi Eric
Thanks for everything for your big heart
We are all well at the moment, the situation in Bergamo is dramatic, we hope that everything will be resolved soon.
Covid-19 has just arrived in America, one piece of advice I can give you is to stay at home and have as few contacts as possible with other people.
See you soon

Marco e il team Legend

[nickl]

My heart breaks for the people of Italy as they shoulder this horrible burden. :-(

This is by far Italy’s worst tragedy since WWII. Today alone over 650 deaths due to the pandemic. I seriously fear for the lives of my family and acquaintances living in and near the red zone. Many in the cycling community also live and work in the area.

[nickl]

It’s my understanding all nonessential industry has now closed throughout Italy. Truly catastrophic for these truly wonderful people.

[fiamme red]

The situation in Bergamo is especially tragic: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-bergamo.html.

[unterhausen]

Wife's grandparents were from Italy. Famously, grandfather left a fiance and when he got enough money to bring her to the states, her sister came instead because the older sister had run off with a different guy.

We were going this fall, not sure if we could find any relatives though.

[redir]

It's really sad seeing the news coming out of there and it's also a harbinger of whats to come here, potentially.

I read an article today from a doctor who is using his iPad so that his patients can say good by to their kids and grandkis vis Facetime since no one is aloud in the hospital they are dying alone.

EDIT: Oh yeah and My Italian bike.

https://i.imgur.com/s1OQanLh.jpg

[XXtwindad]

It's really sad seeing the news coming out of there and it's also a harbinger of whats to come here, potentially.

I read an article today from a doctor who is using his iPad so that his patients can say good by to their kids and grandkis vis Facetime since no one is allowed in the hospital they are dying alone.

EDIT: Oh yeah and My Italian bike.

https://i.imgur.com/s1OQanLh.jpg

No post has made my want to cry more than that one. The numbers are numbing. The stories behind the numbers get you.

[colker]

Wife's grandparents were from Italy. Famously, grandfather left a fiance and when he got enough money to bring her to the states, her sister came instead because the older sister had run off with a different guy.

We were going this fall, not sure if we could find any relatives though.

Dd they marry? Wonderfull imigration story.

[paredown]

On our trip to Italy last summer we had a poignant reminder of the war years--one of the Americans we were traveling with had remembered that her late father had (for his whole life) carried a black and white photo of his wartime sweetheart in Lucca, where he was stationed. And we were staying near Lucca.

The plan was for him to come back for her--instead he got back to the US, got very ill for a time and then never made it back.

So the person we were travelling with--with fragments of the story (and no picture--destroyed on his death by the woman he had married) was determined to find the bakery where this woman worked and the family that had treated him like a son during his time there.

It was a revealing and heartwarming quest--my wife (who can fake enough Italian to get by) was the interlocutor, and two bake shops later, we think we got to the right store (but no longer owned by the same family), and the elderly woman we spoke with--knew of the family, but also displayed such empathy (which seems especially Italian), and understanding.

She seemed to just get why this story was important for the American woman in front of her--and it also sparked further remembrances for her of stories of the war in Lucca and tragic love.

Everyone was tearing up by the end of the conversation..

[paredown]

Oh, and a note from the Italians:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/a-letter-to-the-uk-from-italy-this-is-what-we-know-about-your-future

[unterhausen]

Dd they marry? Wonderfull imigration story.

yes they did. My wife and sister are named after the ship she came over on, the Victoria Regina.

[colker]

Oh, and a note from the Italians:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/a-letter-to-the-uk-from-italy-this-is-what-we-know-about-your-future

This is absolutely brilliant.

[redir]

No post has made my want to cry more than that one. The numbers are numbing. The stories behind the numbers get you.

It was terribly heart breaking. Dying alone in a ward with other patients struggling to survive and everyone that looks over you is dressed in mylar and masks, no one looks human. The last thing you see. Awful. The doctor said it's like they are drowning but it takes a week for them to finally die.

[colker]

It was terribly heart breaking. Dying alone in a ward with other patients struggling to survive and everyone that looks over you is dressed in mylar and masks, no one looks human. The last thing you see. Awful. The doctor said it's like they are drowning but it takes a week for them to finally die.

So sad.

[kiwisimon]

yes they did. My wife and sister are named after the ship she came over on, the Victoria Regina.

Wouldn't want a dyslexic person writing the names on the birth certificate, could get embarrassing.