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The image of 81-year-old Stefano Bozzini playing the accordion from an Italian street below his wife's hospital window stole hearts around the world.

Carla Sacchi was allowed out of the hospital near Piacenza a few days ago but has now died at her home.

Although she had not contracted coronavirus, hospital rules meant her husband was unable to visit her.

Piacenza Mayor Patrizia Barbieri said the disease had "broken their embrace".

However, in a Facebook message, .

"In that serenade we all recognised love, in the simplicity and immediacy of its universal language."

Hospital staff and residents in the town of Castel San Giovanni watched as the former member of Italy's Alpine regiment donned his Alpine hat, sat on a stool and played a succession of melodies including Spanish Eyes from the courtyard beneath his wife's window.

His son Maurizio said Stefano had asked the hospital if he could "perform a few songs for her to give her five minutes of happiness".

"It was a sunny day, I would have liked to play longer, for the whole day," Mr Bossini told the Piacenza Libertà newspaper.

The couple had been married for 47 years and he blew his wife a kiss as she watched from behind the window.

He recently told his local paper how he still played the accordion regularly at village festivals and nursing homes. He said everyone had asked him to play at his wedding but he pretended he had hurt his hand "because I wanted to dance - me with her".

Northern Italy has borne the brunt of the second wave in Italy's Covid-19 pandemic but the Emilia-Romagna region where Castel San Giovanni is located has not been hit as hard as neighbouring Lombardy.

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