Fresh bread, salami, flour, olive oil, pasta, medicine and a few liters of gasoline to start the lawnmower. Everything is inside the backpacks of the Carabinieri, one of Italy's four armed forces.
The mission is very particular: the police officers, led by captain Alessandro Volpini, need to climb around 1400 steps, on an old stone trail built in 1813, the only access route to the village of Monteviasco, in the province of Varese, Lombardy. The walk takes about an hour.
At the top – 950 meters above sea level – the only 7 citizens living there patiently wait for special assistance in times of restrictive measures against the coronavirus.
“In Monteviasco the streets are not enough, so it is not possible to think about online expenses and home deliveries”, jokes Captain Volpini.
The residents from the small village have been isolated since November 2018, when the cable car connecting Monteviasco to the valley stopped working after an accident.
“We are used to being isolated” – says Franca Ballinari, who, alongside her dog, spends her time taking care of the house and the garden. “There are no stores here, we are used to being without many things, helping each other. Isolation has always been a choice for us,” she says.
A more voluntary choice than ever: after the outbreak of the Covid 19 emergency, no resident wants to go down to the valley. “We are much safer here”, says Lucia Cassina, another resident. “The risk of contracting the virus here is very low, but we certainly wouldn’t have been able to stay isolated without the help of the carabinieri,” she explains.
