"Until half an hour ago, 12 of our 18 Covid intensive care beds were occupied," says Demetrio Labate, fastening his protective clothing. "But now we're down to 11. We just lost another patient - he was 82." The ICU doctor gives us our fourth layer of surgical gloves, checks that our overalls leaves no part of our body exposed - and with that, we follow him into the coronavirus ward of the Grande Ospedale Metropolitano, the largest hospital in Calabria. This region in Italy's southern toe was quickly declared a "red zone" in early November as the virus wreaked its destruction. "The second wave has hit us much harder than the first," he says, as he guides us between beds of patients on assisted breathing. "We are lacking staff - and the limited ones we have are doing several extra shifts." One of the female patients is conscious, in a ventilation helmet. She manages a brief wave of her hand: a small gesture to lift the spirits of the exhausted doctors. "We are fighting this like lions so as not to keel over", says Iole Fantozzi, the hospital's director. "This wave was predictable because we felt free over the summer when cases were very low and people came in and out of Calabria." Italy was the first country in the West to be crushed by the pandemic and was for some time its global epicentre.With the eighth highest number of cases in the world, this month it became the second in Europe to surpass 50,000 deaths. In July, when daily infections dropped to just over 100, a false sense of security set in as Italy threw open its doors to tourists and restrictions were rolled back. It is now paying the price, battling a lethal second wave - and once again its death figures are some of the highest in Europe. But unlike March, when the pandemic centred on the wealthy northern region of Lombardy, the second wave is pummelling the impoverished south as well.