In Bergamo, memory of coffin-filled trucks still haunts
Images of army trucks transporting piled-up coffins out of the Italian town of Bergamo last year provided a shocking testament to the horrors of coronavirus. One year on, the memories are still raw. At the height of the pandemic last year, Father Marco Bergamelli was blessing coffins every ten minutes in this city in Italy’s north. “This place was full of coffins, there were 132 lined up at the foot of the altar,” he said, opening the doors of the church at the Monumental cemetery to AFP. “At the beginning, the trucks came at night, nobody was supposed to know the coffins were being taken elsewhere.” The camouflaged vehicles took away up to 70 coffins a day from the church, where they were collected after the local mortuaries filled up. The coffins were transported to cemeteries in other northern cities such as Bologna and Ferrara. Many of the bodies that remained in Bergamo were buried in haste, often without headstones but with signs bearing photos and names of the deceased. Almost everyone here lost a member of their family, a friend, colleague, or neighbour. ICU full again In March 2020 alone, 670 people died in this city of 120,000 inhabitants and almost 6,000 in the...