STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Europe's longest coronavirus lockdown has started to loosen. Italy's prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, says parks and factories can reopen next week. Organized sports and religious ceremonies remain off limits and many people remain at home. So this is just barely a start in a country where half the workforce has no income. Some Italians are adapting an old custom to help the needy and restart the economy. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE: This Roman square used to echo with the noise of crowded cafes and restaurants.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Italian).
POGGIOLI: Now the only business open is the grocery shop Er Cimotto. It's so small that social distancing forces customers to order through the window.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Italian).
POGGIOLI: A customer asks that 10 euro be added to her bill for what's called suspended shopping. The concept derives from the century-old Neapolitan tradition of suspended coffee. A customer in a cafe pays in advance for someone who can't afford it. Shop owner Michela Buccilli says suspended coffee has been replaced with suspended grocery shopping.
MICHELA BUCCILLI: (Speaking Italian).
POGGIOLI: "The customer who has something," says Buccilli, "leaves something for those who don't." Buccilli gives the gifted food to a local aid group that distributes it to the needy. Suspended shopping is an act of charity in which the donor doesn't show off and the recipient doesn't have to show gratitude. With the whole economy in suspension, the custom is being broadened with a view to the future. Puntarella Rossa is a website for foodies. It recently launched suspended wine glass, an initiative to help Rome wine bars in shut down. Livia Belardelli is the site's wine blogger.
LIVIA BELARDELLI: (Speaking Italian).
POGGIOLI: "We did it as a way to help these businesses economically," says Belardelli, "but also as a way to help customers stay in touch with their favorite wine bars." Visitors take a wine bar and pay by bank transfer 10 euro for a glass of wine or 25 for a bottle to be consumed when the bar opens again. Since April 1, Belardelli says, more than 150 customers have paid for wine in waiting at some 30 wine bars. Yet another new initiative is the idea of Manuela Mazzotta. With her hair salon and wedding planner business on hold, she opened a Facebook page with the hashtag #adoptashop. That was on March 20. Within 48 hours, she got applications for listings from all over Italy.
MANUELA MAZZOTTA: (Speaking Italian).
POGGIOLI: "The customer buys a gift card now when shops are shut down," says Mazzotta. "That helps us owners pay the rent or utility bills and tide us over until the reopening" and, she adds, "puts us in a better mood than our current sense of desperation." Pay for something now and get it after lockdown - it's one way to help shopkeepers from going bankrupt and at the end of the virus tunnel return to business almost as usual. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.
(SOUNDBITE OF KORESMA'S "FOREST SANG") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
