March 18 was chosen to commemorate victims as it marks the anniversary of a tragic milestone of the pandemic: the day two years ago when a convoy of army trucks had to transport the dead out of hard-hit Bergamo because the city’s cemeteries and crematoria were full to capacity.

Italian state broadcaster RAI dedicated a day of television and radio programmes looking back on the impact of COVID-19 on Italy, as the country prepares to exit the state of emergency after more than two years.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi opened a press conference on Friday with the leaders of Spain, Portugal and Greece by recalling that it was Italy’s official Day of Remembrance for COVID-19 victims.

The health ministry called for Italians to observe a minute of silence, while Italian President Sergio Mattarella paid tribute to the dead and the city of Bergamo held a commemoration at its “living memorial” – a park of newly planted trees.

“We bow down in memory of the victims,” Mattarella said in his tribute.

“The entire international community shares in the pain of the families.”

The president also expressed gratitude to the nation’s frontline workers and volunteers for their “spirit of sacrifice”.

Italy became the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe after the first locally-transmitted case was confirmed in February 2020 in the Lombard city of Codogno.

But nearby Bergamo soon became the hardest-hit province in the country; by the end of March 2020, it had registered a 571 per cent increase in deaths compared with the five-year monthly average, the biggest increase in Italy and one of the biggest localised increases in mortality rates in Europe.

Footage of the army convoy proceeding through Bergamo on March 18, 2020, carrying caskets of the dead remains one of the most haunting and iconic images of the pandemic.

The shocking image “contained the tragedy of the entire pandemic”, Mattarella said on Friday, with the date remaining “engraved in the memory of Italians”.

The anniversary of the convoy comes as Italy begins lifting its COVID-19 restrictions.

Draghi and Health Minister Roberto Speranza announced on Thursday that many workplace vaccination requirements, quarantine rules and mask mandates would be eased in the coming weeks.

Italy, which has recorded more than 157,000 official COVID deaths, has fully vaccinated 89.7 per cent of its population aged over 12.