As Italy emerges from coronavirus COVID-19 catastrophe, families try to recover loved ones from a lonely grave.

So small are the plastic white crosses, from a distance they’re barely visible.

But a closer look reveals they are part of a field of recently dug graves, not far from the centre of one of Italy’s largest and most sophisticated cities.

Each cross has a name and a plot number on it.

In a section of the Maggiore cemetery in Milan, 128 victims of COVID-19 were buried at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.

The reportage was published on ABC Australia

client: ABC Australia
Reportage by Eugenio Grosso and Davide Preti

august 2020