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ROME, March 15-- I have been reporting the news for most of my adult life, but when a doctor I was interviewing convinced me to get tested for coronavirus, I suddenly felt like I was a protagonist in the biggest news event in my adopted home country. Earlier this month I traveled up to Milan to report on the situation there. At the time, there were a little more than 2,000 active cases of coronavirus in Italy; the overwhelming majority of them were in the country's economically developed northern regions. Milan itself hadn't been hit hard yet, but around a dozen nearby small cities and towns had been sealed off from the rest of the country, nobody was allowed to enter or exit without permission and people inside were told to stay at home. This was my second visit to Milan so far this year and the contrast between the two trips could not have been more stark. Despite the cold during a brief trip in January, the city was its typical self: vibrant, stylish, daring. The weather was warmer in March, but the city was already being pummeled by coronavirus fears. Tourists were nowhere to be found. The streets were nearly deserted and many businesses were closed. Everyone I talked to is devastated by the situation. Two days after my return, March 6, I woke up with a slightly sore throat. I took my temperature, which was only around half a degree Celsius higher than normal. But I wrote the symptoms off to the torrid work schedule I was keeping since coronavirus first appeared in Italy in late January. With only 54 of Italy's nearly 4,000 cases of coronavirus in Lazio, the region that included Rome, the problems in Milan seemed very distant. I vowed to get more sleep and worked as usual. | 
