One was cultural and revolved around the tendency for multiple generations to live in close proximity and interact on a daily basis. That was also the case in what used to be primarily Italian neighborhoods here in America. Not so much in the last 30 years as the "Little Italy" neighborhoods have shrunk or even disappeared.

The other speculated whether Italy's signing on to the Chinese BRI investment in infrastructure project last year with the commensurate influx of Chinese labor into Lombardy had anything to do with it. Interestingly, the BRI project is also building a high speed railroad that runs through Qom in Iran.

Today is day 5 of required working from home. It's boring but hopefully helping to flatten the curve.