For two Italian musicians, being unvaccinated means being locked out of public life
Married cellists Claudio Ronco, right, and Emanuela Vozza are both unvaccinated and unable to perform publicly under Italy's coronavirus rules.
OSIGO, Italy - After many rounds of rules targeting the unvaccinated, the chamber musician's new life is unrecognizable from the old. Claudio Ronco once performed all over Europe, but now he can't even board a plane. He can't check into a hotel, eat at restaurant or get a coffee at a bar. Most important, he can't use the water taxis needed to get around Venice, his home for 30 years - a loss of mobility that recently prompted him to gather up two of his prized cellos, lock up his Venetian apartment and retreat with his wife to a home owned by his in-laws one hour away in the hills.
"Isolation," Ronco called it, on the fourth day in a row that he hadn't left the house.
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For people like Ronco, the choice is to get inoculated or face exclusion.
Ronco, 66, knows some people who have relented, including a fellow musician with three kids and a mortgage. He knows others who are scrambling for hard-to-get medical exemptions. But Ronco - an Orthodox Jew and a specialist in 18th-century music who tends to distrust the trends of the masses - figures this is an instance when he can try to withstand the mounting pressure. His savings are thinning, but not gone. His children are grown. His wife, Emanuela Vozza, a fellow cellist, also unvaccinated, feels as he does. So day after day, his resistance has continued: A musician who once played at Milan's famed La Scala has been instead working alongside Vozza, editing recordings they've made in their countryside living room, unable for the foreseeable future to perform for a crowd.
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Some of the unvaccinated people Ronco knows keep a low profile. Ronco understands why: Their decisions have been criticized vehemently by politicians, by virologists, even by Pope Francis. Days ago, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the unvaccinated are responsible for "most of the problems we have today," disproportionately occupying intensive care beds.
"We're flat-earthers," Ronco said, describing the view of people like himself that has taken hold. "With total disrespect for the system and humanity itself."
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