SCRIPT
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be and however you might be listening, welcome to another episode of What’s Up Tuscany, the daily podcast from L’Arno where you will find the most interesting, funny or odd news from today, Tuesday February 16th 2021 as selected by our journalists. If you wish, please subscribe and share this podcast on social media, it would really help us.

On this very unusual Mardi Gras, let’s start with a story that has nothing to do with the Carnival, yet another incident happened at the hospital in Leghorn. The article from La Repubblica, follows a similar story that happened last January that caused a big uproar in town. Yet again a senior patient was dismissed from the hospital with nothing but a nappy on. The 81 year old lady, suffering from Alzheimer, had been hospitalized for an urinary tract infection and was ready to return home after a week of treatment. When the ambulance door opened, the relatives were horrified to see how she was practically naked in the bitter cold. Despite the contrition of the general medicine ward management, the nephew is outraged. Quote “When she got home, she didn’t have the feeding bag she needs to survive. She had to wait until the next morning, when the daycare nurses reattached it. She had a change of clothes, but they remained in the hospital. No one gave me any explanation on why this happened” end quote. The reaction of the hospital? Same as last time: an internal inquiry will be opened and whoever is responsible for the accident will be harshly reprimanded. Last time it didn’t do much, let’s see if this time it will be enough to stop such an unacceptable behaviour.

Instead of just following the daily evolution of the pandemic, some regional media have looked into the consequences of the extraordinary situation we’re all living in one of the key sectors of our society, the schools. On the Pisa edition of La Nazione we read a disturbing picture of the mental state of many high school students. The words of Doctor Simona Cotroneo, who leads the FairPlay project, are chilling. Quote: “they live a sort of half life, stranded at home, with intermittent periods of distance learning where anxiety, confusion and apathy reign supreme” end quote. The drop in their performance in the half-year report is evident across the board. Distance learning doesn’t help to concentrate but the real issues are psychological. Quote “we see kids that look inward, they don’t talk much with their parents and at school things are not the same as before. They are consumed by uncertainty, they wonder when the emergency will end, they feel left to their own devices, which is why they hide in their little bubbles, unable to blow off steam as they used to” end quote. Teachers are suffering too. On top of the fear of having many of their pupils falling behind, the consequences of the vaccination campaign are showing up. On Il Tirreno we read how headmasters of local high schools are desperate. Five to ten absent teachers every day, twenty one in a single school. High fever, migraines and joint pains are not uncommon in the twelve hours following the first AstraZeneca shot, according to the head of immunology in the Prato hospital but the problem is getting serious. Headmasters are unable to call substitute teachers, as most teachers return to school after a couple of days. The consequences on the service provided to students are evident. The situation will get back to normal soon, when all teachers will be vaccinated, but until then pupils will have to endure yet another disservice in a very complicated school year.

Now let’s talk about the economy, where the attention of many media was focused on tourism, a possible engine of the future recovery. Signs of hope from the data coming from the Uffizi, where the recent reopening was quite successful. In the report published by La Nazione we read that almost twenty thousand people visited the museum. After remaining closed for 77 consecutive days, the longest closure since the end of Second World War, 18146 visitors took the chance to enjoy the masterpieces of the historic Florence museum. The Uffizi director hopes that the museum will be able to reopen soon, considered that a recent study from the Berlin University has shown how museums are the least likely public places when it comes to COVID contagion. Let’s hope so, as the tourism lockdown is wreaking havoc on many industries, starting from car rental companies. On Firenze Today we read the harsh words of FILT-CGIL union representative Stefania Caliò. Sixty percent of the four thousand workers could be fired in March. Quote “the risk of a blood bath is very real. If this industry doesn’t transform itself soon, it will have no future. The crisis could be worse than in 2020” end quote. The situation is just as desperate for tourist buses, where several hundred workers could be soon laid off. To be hit hard from the collapse of tourism and the rise of remote working also other industries, such as garages, driving schools, car sharing and long term rental companies. For some of them business contracted from minus 70 percent to a whopping minus 98 percent. Don’t know about you, but this already looks like a veritable blood bath.

Let’s close today’s episode with a funny story we read on the Massa edition of Il Tirreno. A group of residents of a small town, instead of just complaining, took matters into their own hands and cleaned the streets of their neighbourhood. Some citizens of Borgo del Ponte, a small town near Massa, sunday morning braved the cold and started cleaning the streets. According to the head of a local association, the garbage man over there is, quote, “some sort of a mythological figure, like the bogeyman or the werewolf” end quote. They said they did it as a love gesture for their town but they don’t want to turn this into a regular thing. They are not ready to cover the disservices of the municipality with their good will, they say. We truly hope that their gesture will be enough to change things but we advise them to keep those broomsticks ready, just in case.

That was all for today, I’m your host, Luca Bocci, and I’ll see you tomorrow for another, hopefully a bit more cheerful episode of What’s Up Tuscany, the daily podcast from L’Arno where you will find the news that, according to us, are well worth a second look. Thanks for listening and goodbye.

BACKGROUND MUSIC
Title: Gemini Instrumental
Author: Pipe Choir
License: Creative Commons Attribution
Link: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pipe_Choir/SGONS_Instrumentals/Pipe_Gemini_Instrumental