My grandparents were born in Italian villages with no running water or electricity. There were no doctors and no telephones on which to call a doctor if an emergency arose. There were no cars because there were no roads. From our store-going, internet-shopping perspective, their lifestyle was one similar to our daily social distancing—cooking, eating and sourcing food required discipline and creativity.

For Italians, this pre-modern lifestyle is well within living memory, especially because of the incredible longevity in Italy, as well as among Italian-Americans (my own grandmother lived to 98, and currently, four million Italians are above the age of 80—a poignant fact considering whom COVID-19 is attacking most viciously).