By Brown
Italy could lose one-sixth of its beloved bars and restaurants to the coronavirus crisis — with a staggering 50,000 predicted to have to close for good, according to reports.
The startling economic toll is being projected by Fipe, an Italian lobbying group for bar and restaurants in Italy — the first European nation to be completely overwhelmed by the pandemic, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Despite socializing being so key to Italian culture, junior health minister Sandra Zampa told the BBC it was “impossible” to imagine bars and restaurants reopening “until the discovery of a vaccine.”
One bar owner, only identified as Chiara, told the BBC, “We can’t survive a five- or six-month closure.”
“We poured all our lives into this place. We don’t even have the time to cry or despair about our adventure being over,” she said.
“If you close bars, bistros, restaurants — then it’s not Italy anymore,” she insisted.
The whole of Europe, in fact, will find re-opening “very difficult,” economist Nicola Nobile told the Journal.
The toll includes some centuries-old businesses, such as Germany’s Werneck Brewery which is closing after being in continuous business since 1617.
The decision to finally close caused “many tears,” admitted brewery manager Christine Lang, whose family has owned the brewery since 1861. “My family and I will miss it very much. The brewery has been ever-present, part of every dinner table conversation all our lives,” she said.
“We will be missing part of our identity, and in a way the region will, too.”
