An American student living in Italy describes what it was like to watch the country shut down as the coronavirus panic spread

The only stores currently open in Italy are pharmacies and grocery stores.

As street life began to shut down in Italy, the student said, it felt like everyone was wearing masks and gloves, with people having to line up outside — shoppers can only go in one at a time as people leave. And, she added, everyone stays "a respectful one meter away from each other.

This was "super surprising" and "really striking" to the student, who had gotten used to Italy, where "personal space bubble is way smaller" than Americans or the British, who "already stay like one meter away from each other."

Inside grocery stores, she said, people are also generally wearing gloves and masks. When you go to get groceries rung up, you must wait behind a red line until an employee comes to meet you and bring your items to be scanned.

"I do have a couple of friends that are like, 'Oh my parents are really old, or my children are really young, so I'm going to rent an Airbnb for two weeks and stay there. And I'm not sure what I'll do, or what other, low-income students will do, because there's nothing we can do. We just have to go home and try not to get our family sick."

She added that students from her cohort in different countries all echoed the same sentiment — they felt more comfortable staying where they were than returning to the United States.

"They don't feel safe going back to America, because they either don't have medical insurance or their families are ... they're vulnerable. And I myself have medical insurance, but it's only because I'm on my parents' medical insurance." If she didn't have that insurance coverage, she added, she also wouldn't have wanted to come back.

According to the student, not everyone who received the email telling them to evacuate shared her sentiments.

"The other students in my program, and in the other American programs, they were absolutely heartbroken. People were crying."

She said that some students were upset about the circumstances they had to leave under — and didn't want to head back right away.

"When we got the emails, they didn't want to go home. Because, for some people this is a once in a lifetime to live overseas, before we hit the regular 9-5 ... it was a dream come true for them to live in Italy."

She said she was ready to head back to the US — but the departure was still difficult. "I didn't want to go home like this," she said, "it doesn't feel like it's on my own terms."

Even taking photographs to commemorate the experience was difficult.

"When I was walking throughout the city, I was trying to take as many pictures as I could to sort of remember .... but it, like, taints the memory because in all my pictures the streets are empty, and there it's just like, I don't know, it feels like it's history in the making."