Federica Lonati's Quarantine Diary from Madrid: A Personal Account of Spain's Lockdown

Federica Lonati, an Italian journalist based in Madrid since 2005, contributes to Artribune's 'Lettere dal fronte domestico' series, which collects letters from intellectuals during Italy's Coronavirus lockdown. In her letter, she describes the second week of total lockdown in Spain, starting March 14, 2020, when a state of alarm was declared. Madrid's streets are deserted, bars and restaurants closed, and the city is eerily silent, broken only by ambulance sirens and nightly applause for healthcare workers at 8 PM. Lonati lives in the Chamberí neighborhood, where the curfew is almost total. She notes that many Madrileños have left for their hometowns or country houses, similar to Milanese. Her two teenage children (13 and 15) have adapted to online schooling via platforms provided by the Comunidad de Madrid. Lonati finds mornings hardest, waking to silence. She criticizes alarmist media and uncontrolled social media rumors, calling for a post-epidemic analysis of the right to information. To cope, she has started a daily diary to record activities, thoughts, and national/international data, hoping it will serve as a record for future generations of how people adapted to voluntary captivity during this unprecedented crisis.