Millions of Italians flocked to parks with their families as lockdown restrictions which required them to stay home for nearly two months were finally lifted.
Italy is among the world's hardest-hit countries after registering almost 29,000 deaths since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
But the country has now partially relaxed some restrictions as the county enters 'phase two' of its exit from lockdown.
More than four million people have now returned to work as the nation attempts to get its economy back on track.
Pictures showed trains and other commuter services packed as employees reopened businesses and citizens returned home.
The government has said parks can reopen, giving children the chance to run around, while relatives can once again meet up.
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However, friends have been told to keep apart and most shops must stay shut until May 18.
"I woke up at 5.30 a.m. I was so excited," said Maria Antonietta Galluzzo, a grandmother taking her three-year-old grandson for a walk in Rome's Villa Borghese park, the first time they had seen each other in eight weeks.
Gianluca Martucci was one of the few able to return to work, pulling up the shutters on a small warehouse in the backstreets of Rome for the first time since March 12, when the nationwide lockdown came into force.
"It is good to be back, but the world has totally changed," he said.
Although he was happy to be back in business, he was anxious that infections might take hold again as more people mixed.
"The government has been very wise so far, but I worry that we might be starting up a little too soon," he said. "I don't know if the country could survive a second wave."
Officials cautioned against moving too swiftly as new coronavirus cases passed 3.5 million globally and deaths neared a quarter of a million.
Italy has the world's second highest toll after the United States.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said his country was still in the "full throes of the pandemic", stressing the so-called "phase 2" of the lockdown "must not be seen as a signal that we're all free".
The easing of the lockdown has been blighted by a lack of clarity over exactly what activities were allowed from Monday, and even whose houses people will be able to visit.
The confusion was only worsened by guidelines issued which quickly became the butt of widespread criticism and mockery on social media.
These spelled out that visits to even distant relatives will be allowed, including the children of cousins, or the cousins of spouses, as well as visits to anyone with whom one has "a stable bond of affection".
However they did not say whether friendship counted as a stable bond of affection.
Conte said that "phase two" would include more testing to see who has the virus, with 5 million kits sent to the regions in the next two months.
In addition, from this week some 150,000 blood tests will be carried out to get an idea of how many Italians have already developed antibodies.
Spain, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Israel, Tunisia and Lebanon were also among countries easing some restrictions, reopening factories, construction sites, parks, hairdressers and libraries.
