# The Dolphins Have Returned to Italy In March 2020, as Italy locked down over COVID-19, viral tweets claimed dolphins and swans had returned to Venice's canals thanks to vanishing human pollution. After Snopes debunked the dolphin footage as Sardinian waters where they always swim, Reddit users turned the earnest posts into a parody format captioning absurd returns, like Bigfoot in Canada or aliens finishing the Egyptian pyramids. ## Origin On March 16th, 2020, Twitter user @ikaveri tweeted that the pandemic had cleared the canals of Venice, writing that fish were visible and the swans had returned, a post that collected over a million likes within a month[1]. The following day, Twitter user @b8taFPS shared a video claiming dolphins had shown up in Venice and that nature had hit the reset button, which spread widely and anchored the meme's catchphrase[4]. The fact-checking site Snopes rated the claims a mixture on March 20th, 2020, noting the dolphin video was actually filmed off Sardinia where the animals routinely appear, and that the Venice-area swans lived year-round on the island of Burano[2]. The debunk fueled the parody wave rather than killing it, giving posters a target to mock. - **Platform:** Twitter (viral claim) / Reddit (parody format) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2020 ## Overview The Dolphins Have Returned to Italy, also known as Nature Is Healing, pairs the sincere lockdown-era claim that wildlife was reclaiming empty Italian waterways with an absurd twist, usually a photoshopped or captioned image of a mythical or impossible creature appearing somewhere equally emptied by the pandemic[1]. A typical post captions one image with the earnest line about Venice, then follows with a punchline such as Bigfoot wandering through Canada or extraterrestrials finishing the pyramids in Egypt[5]. The tone sits between eco-optimism and open mockery, poking fun at well-meaning but misinformed viral posts that treated routine wildlife sightings as miracles of a cleaner planet[2]. Nature Is Healing works as a dry caption on its own, often attached to photos of litter, broken infrastructure, or feral animals doing something gross, flipping the sentimental original into deadpan irony[3]. ## How to Use The format typically opens with the straight line, "The dolphins have returned to Italy," or simply "Nature is healing," followed by a "meanwhile in [place]" image showing something impossible or ridiculous[5]. Common conventions include using cryptids, cartoon characters, or mythological beings as the returning wildlife, and pairing a real local landmark with the absurd arrival for the visual joke[6]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Dolphins Have Returned to Italy? It is a parody image macro format from the early COVID-19 pandemic that mocks viral claims about wildlife reclaiming Italy during lockdown by pairing the sincere caption with absurd fake returns elsewhere[3]. ### Where did The Dolphins Have Returned to Italy come from? The format grew out of a March 2020 Twitter post by @b8taFPS claiming dolphins had appeared in Venice, which Snopes later debunked as footage actually shot off Sardinia[2]. ### What does The Dolphins Have Returned to Italy mean? The joke mocks feel-good misinformation about nature healing itself in humanity's absence, flipping sincere ecological posts into deadpan irony about the pandemic era[1]. ### How do you use The Dolphins Have Returned to Italy? Posters typically pair the catchphrase "Nature is healing" or the dolphins line with a "meanwhile in [country]" image showing a cryptid, alien or other impossible visitor[6]. ### Is The Dolphins Have Returned to Italy still popular? The specific dolphin format faded with the end of hard lockdowns, though the "Nature Is Healing" caption is still recycled as a dry irony tag on photos of chaos and decay[3]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/ikaveri/status/1239660248207589383]() 2. [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dolphins-swans-italy-lockdown/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-dolphins-have-returned-to-italy-nature-is-healing]() 4. [https://x.com/i/status/1239863383354224641]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/fns4gy/less_pollution_means_dolphins_have_returned_to/]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/futkpa/coronas_an_operation_created_by_the_chinese/]() 7. [https://ifunny.co/picture/0qZL6JlY7]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-dolphins-have-returned-to-italy-nature-is-healing Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library