The owner of a pizzeria in Wall Township faces his biggest challenge yet, and it’s not his business – his parents are 4,200 miles away on total lockdown now for six weeks in Italy.

 

Owner Gino Illiano opened Attilio's Pizza 21 years ago.

Due to the coronavirus, he had to close for two weeks, but he's back open again. He thinks of his parents in their mid-80s, still on lockdown in Naples. They are healthy, but he says they're struggling with anxiety.

“It is worse, you can’t get out of the house, you're locked inside the house, everything is closed,” says Gino. “The only thing open is supermarket pharmacy, that's it.”

 

Gino also thinks measures like that should have been done here as well.

“Absolutely,” says Gino. “From day one, everybody locked down for a few weeks, and we tried to get everybody more slowing down.”

Gino's attempt at humor through these dark times includes setting up celebrity photos throughout his closed down dining room and a fake dinner party that closes off the back.

But it's his parents he is most concerned about, and thankfully he says they remain in good health.

 

“I remember the war, I was small,” says 82-year-old Filomena Illiano, Gino’s mother. “But I don't remember much. I remember an infection following the war, but it was nothing like this.”

Gino says his sisters live only a few 100 yards away from mom, but because it is a total lock down in the country, they can't even visit her.

He says he will stay open, despite business being down close to 30%.