Annaelisa Lugini had every intention of returning to Italy after visiting her husband, Gianmarco de Felice, in New York City, where he is spending a few months on a research project.

But her flight at the beginning of the week left without her on it. Faced with the prospect of a nationwide lockdown on movement in Italy to stem the spread of the coronavirus, they decided it would be better for her to stay and wait it out, rather than being confined to her home, as their parents in Rome are.