But the rest of Europe stood around, slack-jawed, while things spiraled out of control in Italy. I live in a different European country, and the lead-up to the COVID crisis was like watching a someone being chased down by a snail -- the only reason the snail caught them was because they didn't bother to move out of the way. For example, people were regularly traipsing off to the Italy for vacation up until the point when things started to spin out of control and they shut the country down.