Italy is a strong nation that has always faced down adversity - including the current coronavirus outbreak - Senate speaker Elisabetta Casellati said on Tuesday.
"Italy is a strong country. A nation that - as history has taught us - has always known how to respond with determination to any difficulty - even the most dramatic," Casellati said.
"It has the interior resources to swifty overcome this critical and delicate phase," Catellati stated.
Casellati made the remarks in a message of condolence in the Senate for victims of the coronavirus, which has killed at least seven people in Italy and infected at least 283 - almost all in the northern Lombardy and Veneto regions.
Italy's authorities have declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus, banned commercial flights to and from China, cancelled an international furniture fair and put some 10,000 people under lockdown in virus-hit areas of Lombardy and Veneto among other measures.
European Union, United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control representatives will hold talks in Rome on Wednesday on the coronavirus crisis with Italian officials.
After South Korea, Italy has had the highest number of coronavirus cases outside China - the epicentre of the epidemic.
