How can you stay fit if you are shut up in your apartment? It's not easy, but it can be done. And what if you're a musician? Your balcony becomes your stage, and the adjacent buildings, your audience.

During the pandemic, children keep being born, which is a a joyous event. At the same time, people, especially the elderly, die with no loved ones around, no closure, no goodbyes. The doctors and nurses worry constantly about having been careful enough with their PPE.

During the lockdown of 2020, cities were deserted. The urban landscape changed drastically and some strange things happened, too.

During the pandemic, there were those who couldn't do their shopping for one reason or another, so volunteers would help out. Some could pay for their groceries, but others couldn't. At the beginning of the video, we're in the ZEN, a housing project on the outskirts of Palermo. ZEN stands for Zona Espansione Nord (northern expansion zone). Towards the end of the segment, we're at Milan's Pio Albergo Trivulzio, a nursing home and hospital where many people died in the first wave of Covid-19.

Despite the restrictions brought on by Covid, people would still graduate from school, they'd get married, and they'd celebrate birthdays. But of course, they would have to get creative. Health workers in close contact with Covid patients would have to find a way to be affectionate with their loved ones without infecting them.

How did Italians spend Easter in 2020? Certain traditions were able to be maintained, but it wasn't easy!

On April 25th, Italians celebrate being liberated from the Nazis. It's customary for Italians to gather in piazzas all over the country to celebrate, but in 2020, everyone was in lockdown. The famous song Bella ciao provides the soundtrack for this segment, as people talk about their experiences, as well as what they are looking forward to when the worst of the pandemic is over.

We come to the end of this story of the lockdown in Italy, told through amateur videos, all gathered and coordinated by Gabriele Salvatores.

Franco Commisso, an emerging Italian artist, talks about his latest song "Mai, mai ormai," [Never, Never by Now]. The interview covers subjects like his early start in music, competing at age three, and his performing in Korea. Video provided by PA 74 Music.

Franco Battiato sings about love philosophically. It's useless to have regrets, since we can't go back in time.

Tozeur is a city in southwestern Tunisia, near the Algerian border. The train line referred to in the song was originally built for the king in the early 1900s when Tunisia was still a French protectorate. More info about the song here.

Francesco goes about explaining philosophy to children using a jar. Philosophy is like magic, but while magic involves objects, philosophy involves ideas.

Is the jar full or empty? Let's see what Francesco and the kids have to say about it.

Francesca Vitalini describes her training in journalism and her work for a newspaper in Garbatella, a neighborhood of Rome.

What kinds of jobs does a journalist do? Francesca explains what her job entails.