With the Eternal City turned into a stark De Chirico landscape because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vatican will mark an uprecedented Holy Week as celebrations leading up to and including Easter, Christianity’s most important holiday, will allow only for virtual viewing.

In past years Settimana Santa, the name for Holy Week in Italy, was a period when thousands from around the world flocked to Rome to witness the ancient rituals, traditions and Papal appearances that began with Palm Sunday Mass and the blessing of the palms in St. Peter’s Square, and ended on Easter Sunday with the Pope’s Urbi et Orbi message delivered from the basilica’s central balcony, the Loggia of the Blessings.