Today is Monday, the eighteenth of May 2020 and our trip back to the United States begins today. After our original reservation to fly back on April 14 was cancelled, I rescheduled for the 19th of May, hoping that by then restrictions would start to loosen and flights would be taking off. As it turned out, it was a fortuitous choice and, after one more cancellation it seems that this reservation will actually hold.
As we began to believe that we would be able to leave, we filled out autocertification forms, required to describe where we are going and why, reserved hotels, scheduled appointments for matters that needed to be resolved before we left Italy and finally pulled out the suitcases. All seemed to be moving toward departure when Terry was told by a friend that it would be impossible for us to drive to Rome to catch our flight because travel out of our region was still prohibited. Although I had checked relevant websites and was sure we would be able to travel, Terry called another friend for her opinion about the matter. She confirmed, that no, she thought we would not be able to travel but offered to call our Questra (Regional headquarters) in Arrezzo to verify. I wasn’t surprised when she found that we could, indeed, make the trip; as U S citizens we were allowed to travel in order to return to our home country.
With a car rented for the trip to Rome and a night’s stay reserved in a hotel near Fiumicino airport, preparation for phase I of our journey was in place. Today, we will leave in the morning to arrive at our hotel this afternoon. It will be the first of five days of hotels, before moving into the condo we’re purchasing in Hickory, NC. Hotels, of course, are places we would prefer to avoid during a pandemic–will they have been sanitized? Should we wear gloves for the entire time we spend in them? What about sheets, blankets and bedspreads? Let alone bathrooms and all surfaces within the room. Will a nearby restaurant be open where we can get an evening meal? We have a bag of food to take in case there isn’t. The same bag of food may be our evening meal when we arrive in Atlanta after 8:00 p.m on Tuesday, probably not reaching our hotel until 10:00 or so after going through procedures at Hartsfield International airport.
And then what about the airports? We presume that our temperatures will be taken. In Rome the latest means of doing that is through a helmet worn by airport personnel that protects against close contact between the worker and passengers.
Boarding–will people observe distancing at the gate and during boarding? Will there be staggered seating as we are told will be done? Will Django’s carrier fit under the seat of the “city hopper” Embraer 190 that takes us to Amsterdam and what will happen if it doesn’t? And, oh yes, we have a layover in Amsterdam, a major and unfortunate change of schedule from our original reservation to fly non-stop Rome to Atlanta. Will it be possible to take Django outside for bathroom relief during the two hour layover? He will have no compunction against releasing his bladder in the airport so I have paper towels packed for that eventuality. Will we again have our temperatures taken? Will we have to transfer between terminals and, if so, how far would that be?
Today is Thursday, May 21 Our travel is behind us and we are now in Hickory, NC. It is the third day of transition between our home in Italy and and our soon to be home in the United States. Monday was the easiest of those entailing only a three and a half hour drive to our hotel next to Fiumiciano airport. The hotel is an oasis within a commercial area and features a large, fenced in yard where Django could wander freely, roll in the grass, and generally enjoy being a dog. We sat at a table at the edge of the yard to enjoy a glass of wine and a take out Chinese supper, enjoying a pleasant lacuna of relaxation before beginning remaining travels the next morning.
We headed to the airport early the following day in order to return our rental car and check in, not knowing how difficult or time consuming it might be. As it turned out, in spite of necessary distancing, the fewer number of passengers meant that procedures went quickly. We expected to have temperatures taken and perhaps testing with swabs, but neither happened–and we never saw a person wearing the helmet shown above. Although there were a few exceptions, virtually everyone from staff to passengers were wearing face masks and any passenger not equipped with one would be handed a mask before boarding.
Spacing during our flight to Amsterdam on a small “city hopper” was as it should be, with only alternate seats assigned in order to maintain distance between passengers. As we reached our seats we saw a little packet of food waiting for us containing our snack for the flight– half a cheese sandwich, a cookie and a bottle of water. Django’s carrier didn’t quite fit under the seat but was safely enough stowed to pass muster.
Both at Fumicino and Amsterdam’s Schiphol airports, all was extraordinarily quiet; most shops were closed but the few offering snacks and drinks were sufficient to serve the limited number of people flying during these strange days. At Amsterdam, the duty free shop was fully operational, customers allowed in limited numbers, each handed a basket that had been sterilized, to fill with candy, alcohol, syrup pancakes, perfumes or any of the usual duty free items one finds at these markets where the prices are not so low, but the opportunity to pass time is tempting.
At the boarding gates, the number of people waiting was considerably less than normal and seats were marked off so that thee meters separated each person. As we waited, we saw an apparently at risk individual deplaning from an incoming flight. Clearly frail, she was pushed in a wheel chair and equipped with a full face plastic shield; a companion accompanying her wore protective covering and a face shield. Whatever the reason for her extreme care, this woman epitomized the heightened health situation we all live with these days.
Again at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, we were not subjected to any form of health monitoring though there were a number of Red Cross personnel present throughout the terminal. As boarding time approached, one them stood in front of the boarding desk, using an IPad for some purpose we couldn’t determine: was it a means of taking temperatures? She did focus on each passenger as they approached and it hardly seemed plausible that she was simply taking photographs.
When we boarded with, of course, proper distancing, we again found food provided for the flight on our seats. This time, a full cheese sandwich, an assortment of cookies and candies, two oranges and three small bottles of water. There would be no food service otherwise, nor drinks of any kind available. This flight was on a 747 loaded with about 30 people, each with abundant room to stretch out and sleep or just relax for the eight and a half hour trip.
As we deplaned in Atlanta, we were met by a CDC representative wearing a face shield who instructed us to self-quarantine for fourteen days following our arrival. After retrieving purse and glasses I had left on the plane, then going through immigration, where our remaining fruit was confiscated, we finally were free to go pick up the rental car we would use to drive to Hickory. The rental center was far, far, from the terminal but we were shuttled there, then eventually found the Avis desk, loaded our luggage into the car and headed off to find our (substandard) hotel to sleep before heading to Hickory the next day.
Almost as soon as we began our drive the next morning, heavy rain began and continued for the entire trip, making for a harrowing drive instead of one filled with anticipation of completing our travels and seeing Hickory for the first time. When we finally arrived in Hickory we spent an hour or so trying to locate our hotel using inaccurate directions from MapQuest and confused by the complicated system of assigning addresses in Hickory. By the time we had stopped twice to get help and at last reached our, thankfully pleasant, hotel we were frustrated and exhausted. But there was little time for resting as a walk-through of our heretofore unseen condo was scheduled for four o’clock. After the driving challenges we had already experienced that day, we were grateful when our realtor offered to come to the hotel to guide us to the condo. She, of course, knew the city well and took us speedily through the trip.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that the condo exceeded our expectations. Moreover, it was set in a beautifully wooded area not far from Lake Hickory. Both the location and the meticulous condition of our soon-to-be part-time home reassured us that we would be happy here. Since we had spent so much time first wandering through Hickory then following our realtor across town, we were becoming somewhat familiar with the area, at least as far as the primary roads were concerned. It is a small city of about 50,000 residents, significantly larger than any town Terry or I had lived in recently and much more heavily trafficked. But the great diversity of restaurants, stores and activities more than compensated for greater distances and a higher volume of traffic.
Now today, we have shopping to do. It is almost impossible to function in the time of coronavirus without a phone, and since we have only our Italian one at the moment, a pay as you go phone will be one of the first items we need to buy. And, as we will soon be out of our hotel, we need a mattress. Hopefully by the end of the day we will have both. But we have a completely empty home to furnish not to mention setting up services that will turn on the lights and provide Wifi for using the computer or watching TV. There’s a lot to buy and do and I suspect we won’t be able to just enjoy our new home and city for a while. Tomorrow at 10:30 we will sign the final papers, becoming home owners and residents here, but tomorrow seems a world of work away.
Today is Saturday, May 23. And it is move in day. We purchased mattresses on Wednesday, which will be delivered this morning so tonight we sleep in our new home. We also bought dishes, silverware and linens earlier in the week and yesterday furniture for our den, also to be delivered today, so we have enough to get by, more or less, for the immediate future. The condo is large so we will confine furnishings initially to just a few rooms that will become our living spaces. In time it will be fully furnished but that may not be for a while and perhaps not fully completed before we leave in the Fall.
Today is Friday, May 29, nearly a week since I last wrote. And a busy week it was. Inevitably we spent considerable time looking for furniture and, though we still await the delivery of much of it, we think we will soon have enough to make a comfortable home. Probably because Hickory is a major center for furniture manufacture and sales, the consignment stores here offer exceptional pieces for sale at prices much lower than new furniture. All but the mattresses and a sofa and love seat for the living room came from these stores and we will no doubt continue to check them out for the final, smaller pieces we will need to complete the furnishing of our townhome. And, yes, it is a townhome, not a condo as the HOA president explained. Townhomes include exterior walls, not just the space between them as a condo does, and ownership extends an additional two and a half feet beyond the walls. Virtually everyone here has used that area to plant a garden, many of them reaching beyond the legally recognized two and a half feet. As I walk around the complex with Django I admire the personal touches that make each townhome unique. Unable to resist starting one of our own, we have purchased a few plants to get started.
Saturday, May 30 Clearly, with all the shopping, arranging services, and necessary visits to complete legal processes, we have not self-isolated during our time here as the CDC advised us to do. We have, of course, followed social distancing practices, always wore masks when we entered any place of business and adhered to hygienic recommendations. Further protecting us, and those with whom we came in contact, some stores required appointments to enter, others marked off spacing or installed directional indicators, many offered hand sanitizers at the entrance, employees all wear masks or are protected by shields and in most stores sanitizing of surfaces is ongoing. Still, in practice there is uneven adherence to those protections and opportunities for contagion are high. In the meantime North Carolina is experiencing a 40% increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. The safety from exposure we knew in Anghiari cannot be assumed here.
Surely no one will forget the experience of living during the coronavirus pandemic and, for us, traveling and relocating during this time is an adventure wrapped in the bizarre. But, spotted here and there are moments of relative normalcy or normal as we now know it.
Lurching towards Italy 