Stir-crazy Italians will be free to stroll and visit relatives for the first time in nine weeks on Monday as Europe's hardest-hit country eases back the world's longest nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Four million people -- an estimated 72 percent of them men -- will return to their construction sites and factories as the economically and emotionally shattered country tries to get back to work.
Restaurants that have managed to survive Italy's most disastrous crisis in generations will reopen for takeaway service.
But bars and even ice cream parlours will remain shut. The use of public transport will be discouraged and everyone will have to wear masks in indoor public spaces.
'The relief is palpable': Italians return to the streets
"We are feeling a mix of joy and fear," 40-year-old Stefano Milano said in Rome.
"There will be great happiness in being able to go running again carefree, in my son being allowed to have his little cousin over to blow out his birthday candles, to see our parents," the father-of-three said.
"But we are also apprehensive because they are old and my father-in-law has cancer so is high risk".
'Moment of responsibility'
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus emerged in December, led the world with an unprecedented lockdown on January 23 that lasted 76 days.
Weeks later Italy followed suit, becoming the first Western democracy to shut down virtually everything in the face of an illness that has now officially killed 28,884 -- the most in Europe -- and some fear thousands more.
The lives of Italians began closing in around them as it became increasingly apparent that the first batch of infections in provinces around Milan were spiralling out of control.
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