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The Lazio Health Councilor: no shopping crowd or it will be the third wave
From today in 'orange': crowds in the center of Turin, in Milan the shopping streets are revived
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19 December 2020From North to South, from Milan to Naples, passing through Turin, Padua, Genoa and Rome, it was a day of great crowds in the shopping streets, with lines in front of the shops, a large mass of people on the move, long columns of self and social distancing often at risk.
The entire weekend is under high tension, with the risk of gatherings for Christmas reunions and the last shopping opportunity.
Traditionally the last weekend before Christmas is the one that sees the most people flocking to buy the last-minute gift.
From the 24th, expenses will be prohibited, except for food or necessity, and this could be the last chance for many to shop.
Milan
As on a normal shopping Saturday before Christmas week.
So today the streets of Milan, a few hours from the red zone, crowded with people in a frantic hunt for a gift idea.
In Corso Buenos Aires, the traditional shopping street, you walk at a crawl on the sidewalks, while the traffic appears congested as in a weekend before the Covid era.
Outside some shops, especially in bookstores, Christmas decoration and video game shops, disciplined lines of people with masks have formed, patiently waiting for their turn.
Also fill the wagons of the subways, especially those traveling to the Duomo stop.
Some passengers, given the gatherings, preferred to leave the metro and reach the destination on foot to run less risk of contagion.
Naples
A day of shopping, trying not to think about restricted parties, without dinners, but walking and buying gifts.
Even today in Naples, thanks to the mild climate of these days, the Neapolitans flocked to the main streets to enjoy what remains of the Christmas holidays.
Full via Toledo, via Chiaia and Piazza Dante in the center, as well as via Scarlatti and via Luca Giordano al Vomero and via Epomeo in Fuorigrotta.
A crowd with a mask and under the watchful eye of the police who have carefully guarded the areas most sought after by citizens.
Compared to other years, however, there have been no tens of thousands of tourists who attacked Naples in the Christmas holidays, to enjoy the mild start of winter and traditions such as nativity scenes in churches or in San Gregorio Armeno.
In the shops there are some customers, but the sale is slow.
Grocery stores and wine shops also complain about the decline in business.
Padua
Saturday of passion especially for motorists in Padua, with the effects of the closure of the historic center to traffic decided from today on weekends by the mayor Sergio Giordani, to preserve the city from the onslaught of shopping as last weekend.
Thousands of cars were rejected at the gates of the inner ring road by the municipal police.
The historic center was thus protected from the pre-Christmas invasion.
The ordinance had the side effect of heavy traffic along the streets leading to the center and the squares.
Sources in the Municipality report that there was a 30-40% drop in attendance in the center compared to last Saturday.
The stop at the car entrances will also affect tomorrow, Sunday, the time slot 10-19.
Rome
Intense traffic in different areas of the capital and many walking in the shopping streets on the last Saturday before Christmas.
Dozens of interventions by the Local Police patrols this morning to facilitate road traffic as much as possible and to verify compliance with anti-Covid regulations.
Particular attention is paid to the roads of greatest commercial interest, including the Boccea area, via Cola di Rienzo, via Appia and the Trident, where the joint control device ordered by the Prefecture of Rome has been triggered.
Turin
Long queues even before the opening of the shops were formed this morning in Turin in the shopping streets, in the historic center.
The greatest influx of people was recorded in via Garibaldi, where the first gatherings were already noted around 10:30.
In the Piedmontese capital, today, the very central Via Roma and some adjacent streets have become pedestrianized.
The solution did not avoid the critical issues: traffic became congested in the adjacent streets and long lines of cars formed in the vicinity of the underground car parks.
In front of Lego, Zara, Luis Vuitton, the queues come out of the porch to get to the center of the street.
Massive controls by the police, but also by the vigilantes who measure the temperature and are strict in enforcing the income.
The bar dehors are also full.
Genoa
The Municipality of Genoa is continuing with the measures it has ordered in recent days, such as the closure of the central via XX Settembre to traffic to improve the distancing during the main weekend of Christmas shopping.
"The provisions we have taken to avoid crowds are currently valid for this weekend - explained Bucci - and allow you to walk over a wide area with the exception of the central lane, which is dedicated to buses. We recommend for the same reason a those who move to via San Lorenzo and the other main streets to keep right. From Monday we will see what to do for public holidays ".