ROME — The last time we saw Italian flags hanging from balconies, the last time this triumphant national anthem was heard in the streets on a grand scale, Italy was on a much darker world stage.
It was spring of 2020, and the nation was the first to be upended by a national coronavirus lockdown. In the northern city of Bergamo, the military was called in to transport bodies while the crematorium furnaces burned 24 hours a day. Funerals were canceled. Police roadblocks cut off towns and families and all the simple joys of life that Italians protected at all costs.