81-year-old Italian man serenades hospital-bound wife from street outside

‘A lot of the sick people in the hospital were looking out of their windows,’ Stefano Bozzini says

Stefano Bozzini serenading his wife from outside hospital (Screengrab)

An 81-year-old Italian man unable to visit his wife of 47 years in hospital due to coronavirus has been filmed serenading her with his accordion from the street outside.

Stefano Bozzini’s wife, Carla, was reportedly taken into hospital in Castel San Giovanni so that doctors could carry out tests for suspected cancer.

While Mr Bozzini was unable to visit his wife due to restrictions to stop the importing of Covid-19 into the hospital, he decided to sit beneath her window and regale her with songs of significance to their lives together.

A retired member of the Italian army's Alpini mountain infantry, Mr Bozzini donned his uniform hat and perched himself on a stool outside the hospital with his according.

He opened with a rendition of Spanish Eyes by Engelbert Humperdinck, as Carla and several of her nurses watched from above.

“She was so in love with that song, I play it all the time at home,” he told The Guardian. 

“I played others that everyone knows, one song after the other, I didn’t stop. A lot of the sick people in the hospital were looking out of their windows.”

Carla was discharged on Monday and Mr Bozzini told the paper that he declined the hospital’s offer to bring her home in an ambulance, saying: “I said no, I’m coming to get her straightaway. 

“We’re by each other’s side all the time. The illness she has is very serious and will now need treatment in a specialist hospital.”

According to Italian news agency ANSA, fellow members of Mr Bozzini’s old Alpini unit had nicknamed him “Gianni Morandi of the Alpines”, due to his love for playing the accordion.

The pair were married in 1973 and have reportedly lived in the Emilia-Romagna town throughout their life together.

Responding to an image of the now-viral gesture on Facebook, his daughter wrote: “That’s my dad … unique.”