'We underestimated it': An Italian woman urges Americans not to repeat the same mistake that left her home country vulnerable to becoming the new coronavirus epicenter

• When the coronavirus outbreak was reported in Wuhan, most people in Italy didn't take the threat too seriously because China is "far, far away" and the infection itself seemed like the flu, Isabella Castoldi said.
• But as the COVID-19 virus reached Europe, people went from joking about it to panic-buying toilet paper, and Florence became "a ghost town" almost overnight, she recalled.
• Looking back, Castoldi acknowledged that underestimating the virus left Italy susceptible to becoming the COVID-19 epicenter in Europe.
• She urged Americans and others in countries where the coronavirus is creeping in to practice social isolation and follow containment measures if they want to wrestle control of the illness.
• Italy has been wracked by its local outbreak, with nearly 70,000 sickened and 6,820 dead as of March 24.
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When news of the coronavirus first emerged, many people in Italy, Isabella Castoldi included, thought they were untouchable.

The COVID-19 virus originated in Wuhan, which is "very, very far away," Castoldi said. "We expected other countries that are much closer to China to be in this situation before us so we just joked about it. We were not afraid of it or anything."

That thought process was compounded with a misconception that the coronavirus is "just a flu," she recalled. People were convinced that even if they got sick, they would be able to get better, telling themselves, "It's not that serious. It's just a phase. It's going to be fine."

"We underestimated," Castoldi told Business Insider, stressing that Italy, home to some 60 million people, is paying dearly for that misstep.

The coronavirus, which causes a pneumonia-like illness, has breached 169 countries around the globe, infecting more than 415,000 people and killing at least 18,500 people, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Italy has been thrashed by an escalating outbreak, with nearly 70,000 sickened and 6,820 dead as of March 24. Despite being on lockdown since March 10, it has set the record for the highest single-day coronavirus death toll - 793 on March 21 - and overtaken China as the country with the most coronavirus-related deaths.

Between 'one day and another,' Florence emptied out

Italy confirmed its first coronavirus case less than four weeks ago, on February 20. But people weren't yet paying heed to the brewing threat, evidenced by the fact that Castoldi went to Milan - in the nation's hardest-hit Lombardy region - to get a tattoo on February 28.

After returning, she went about her normal daily routine, which included working at a popular ice cream store just steps away from the city center.

"We usually have a very, very long queue that extends outside the door," Castoldi said. "Then, from one day to another, it was empty."

That same week, she also helped a co-worker count the shop's daily earnings, only to realize that they'd made "thousands of euros" less than normal. And their team and hours were cut down as customers slowed to a trickle.

"It was crazy," Castoldi said. "That's when we started to realize that maybe this is more serious than we thought."

The 25-year-old also remembers noticing supermarkets "overflowing" with people panic-buying everything from toilet paper to meat and pasta.

"I was shocked," she said. Seemingly between "one day and another," Florence, a hit among tourists, became "like a ghost town."

The coronavirus should not become meme fodder

However, it wasn't until Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte shut down Lombardy on March 8 that Castoldi responded to the "panic level," and reached out to her doctor about possible exposure to the virus while she was in Milan. She was instructed to self-quarantine for five days, from March 9 to March 13, since she'd already spent several days interacting with her coworkers, and father and brother, with whom she lives, and no one was symptomatic.

So, Castoldi shut herself into her room, and spent time watching movies, surfing the internet, reading, and sleeping. Her pet cat, Bilbo, stuck by her side for all of it.

She only came out for a few moments at a time, always with a face mask on, to use the restroom or get food.

The Castoldi home has two restrooms, so she used one. The kitchen, however, required a bit more planning. Either her father cooked meals and left a dish for her - that she ran out and grabbed while they took cover elsewhere in the house - or she came out and prepared a plate when they weren't around. Everything she touched had to be sanitized.

Her self-quarantine has since ended, so she can now roam the house and spend time with her family. They all remain symptom-free.

But Castoldi has taken to posting warnings on social media, discouraging influencers and others around the world from spreading coronavirus jokes and memes.

People need to do their part to halt the spread of the virus

China's cases declined dramatically because they "put everybody in quarantine," she said, urging people to remember that we not only don't have a cure for the coronavirus, but are also battling a lack of knowledge about it. In the interim, others, in the US and elsewhere, need to double down on stringent containment measures and social distancing.

"It's hard to change habits, put them on pause, but ... it's the only way," she said. If Italians had taken the coronavirus more seriously during the onset of the outbreak, maybe they could have averted the disaster that's wracked their country.

Castoldi said the state of medical workers in Italy - where they are working inhumane hours, in overloaded hospitals, lacking appropriate protective equipment, within a collapsing healthcare system, and often being forced to decide who to save - further galvanized her to speak out.

"They don't really want to be called heroes, but that's what they are," she said. The fact that "they risk their lives for us" should be enough impetus for people to obey directions and not exacerbate the situation.

One thing's for sure, though, Castoldi said, "unless an outbreak like this affects us directly, it's easy to believe it never will."

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