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ROME, May 17-- On Monday, Italy will take its biggest step yet toward reopening its economy after nearly ten weeks of national lockdown. Starting Monday, shops, restaurants, bars, barbershops, beauty salons, museums, and beachfront operators will all be allowed to reopen as long as they respect rules for social distancing and disinfecting facilities. Italians will also be allowed to move within the region they live in. But schools will remain closed. The current plan is for them to reopen only in September. The decision to keep schools closed is controversial, especially since the newly-reopened economy will see more parents heading out to work while children have no place to go. Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina said the decision to keep schools closed was based on health concerns. "The easy thing would have been to reopen the schools, but we acted prudently," the minister told Italian reporters last week. "Keeping the schools closed has allowed us to save lives by slowing the spread of the contagion." Traditionally, the decisions to close schools in Italy -- usually for bad weather or in the wake of a natural disaster -- are taken by local mayors, and rarely does a closure last for more than a few days. But if schools remain closed until September, it means students will have been out of the classroom for seven months by the time they reopen. In some parts of Italy, including some provinces of the northern region of Piedmont and in parts of southern Italy not hard hit by the coronavirus outbreak, mayors have threatened to reopen schools despite the rules of the national quarantine. But no city has so far disregarded the rules completely. | 
