Prime Minister Mario Draghi travelled to Bergamo, located northeast of Milan, to pay his respects.
“This place is a symbol of the pain of a whole nation,” Draghi told the few dozen people present.
He said Bergamo had experienced “terrible days” in which residents had not been able to be with their loved ones during their final moments.
At the time the convoys were put into service, Bergamo had run out of space for the bodies and so the military was called in to transport them to crematoria in other cities.
Draghi also inaugurated a living memorial – a forest named in honour of the victims – near the city’s main hospital and laid a wreath at the local cemetery.
“This place is a symbol of the pain of an entire nation,” he said, before witnessing the planting of one of the park’s planned 850 trees to the sounds of a trumpet.
Thursday was a day of mourning across Italy, with the dead commemorated in different ways and flags lowered to half-mast.
Since Lombardy, the region where Bergamo is located, is currently part of Italy’s “red zone” with the strictest coronavirus restrictions, most people could not be at Draghi’s event in person.
“We cannot hug each other, but this is the day in which we must all feel even closer,” Draghi said.
Italy, a country of 60 million, has recorded more than 103,000 coronavirus deaths.
