COSENZA - With much of Italy opening up, many regions even becoming yellow on Monday, any other group of men, in any other place, given a fine for enjoying a coffee in a bar might rightly have been indignant about the harsh penalty - if it weren't for the fact that this particular instance took place in a still-orange Calabria, and the group in question were police officers, stumbled upon by Carabinieri.

  In the comune of Corigliano-Rossano, a small town with only 70,000 inhabitants, a couple of Carabinieri decided to quickly stop in a bar to get a coffee while on duty - standard procedure. Having finished their coffee outside, as the orange zone regulations require, they went back into the bar, resuming their duties, to issue fines to the group of police officers, some even on duty and in uniform, they had seen drinking their coffee at the bar, without masks or social distancing.

  The police officers, also in the company of a local health official, were all given fines, though the harshest punishment was handed to the owners of the bar, which was ordered to immediately close.

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