In this time of pandemic, a study of previous epidemics in Tuscany and Italy shows many similarities of successful disease management and dismal failures. Surprisingly, not much has changed in a thousand years.
Ferrara was ahead of its time in 1630
The Black Plague (bubonic plague) ravaged large cities and provincial towns in northern and central Italy from 1629 to 1631, killing more than 45,000 people in Venice alone and wiping out more than half the population of cities like Parma and Verona. But strikingly, the northern Italian town of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna managed to prevent even a single death… Read More