The last week has been more of the same, except for the weather. Like most other people in Europe, and now – finally – those at home, we’re only allowed out for groceries or walking the dogs.
Thank god Colin has two doggies so we can both get out for an hour or so each day.
We did go to the next town again to visit the nice butchers and get a few things, but otherwise have been in the house doing a lot of reading. The tv only gets Italian stations and there’s no sports happening – they’re down to showing football (soccer) matches from 1977 for entertainment. The first John Wick movie was on last night, and while it was funny to hear Keanue Reeves speak fluent Italian (ok – it was dubbed) it was getting late so I gave up partway through.
The weather took a bad turn – the last few days we’ve had fierce winds, and – snow! Colin was looking out the window and told me it was snowing and I actually didn’t believe him – I thought he was joking, and I am very gullible.
But no – it really was snowing – just a few days ago I’d taken the patio chairs out, and was quite comfortable in shorts and t-shirt, but now I have to bundle up in my winter coat and icelandic wool hat and mitts. I’d thought I’d left winter behind, but apparently not.
I try not to obsess about the news and how badly some countries and their useless governments are coping – why didn’t they learn from the mistakes made here?
I’m glad we’re in such a small village and not a large city, and that we can still go outside – we’re alone in the hills within two minutes, and sometimes don’t see a single other person. We always carry our passports now, as well as the form that the police will sign if we’re ever stopped, but so far so good.
Little Henry is a bit of a rascal – he’s developed a fondness for my socks so I now have to hide them when I take them off. We had a tug-of-war the other day with one of them, and he’s also gone after my wool hat, which must now stay safely tucked away in my backpack.
He’s also had a little ‘accident’ or two in the house, although I wonder if it’s a protest because we’re not letting him lick our plates anymore when we’re finished eating.
I really hope everyone at home and elsewhere start to behave as we and our fellow villagers are here – be considerate and respectful. Be kind and caring. Don’t be selfish or put others in danger by going out as if nothing has changed. Maybe we can make a better world when we get over this challenge – and we will.
We had planned to ride our bikes to a larger town just north of us to get groceries, but discovered that my front tire was completely flat. Upon removing it we found a vicious thorn about half an inch long, just like a spike – ok, Colin found it while I supervised. Ok again! – Colin found it while I watched helplessly and tried to keep the dogs out of the way.
We picked up some fresh local veggies and more excellent meat from the butcher – he remembered us from our last visit and we got some lovely lamb chops as well as a nice roasting chicken, a steak and some ground beef (I’ll never be a vegetarian!).
We’ve taken the dogs out every day for nice longwalks – one of the few things we’re still allowed to do. Even recreational bike riding is now forbidden since if you have an accident you would be taking precious emergency resources away from a completely overburdened medical system trying desperately to save coronavirus victims’ lives.
We consider ourselves very fortunate to be where we are right now, despite the fact that we are right in the middle of Italy – or maybe because that’s where we are. We’re in a lovely, comfortable little house, we have a great outdoor space, and are nowhere near a big city. The village is coping very well and the small Conad store here hasn’t run out of anything (although thanks to me they’re getting low on a certain kind of vino rosso) – could be much worse!
It’s gotten warm enough to put the patio furniture out so I spent a couple of hours this afternoon sipping some local red and reading online about the idiots in the UK and US – not just the citizens but especially the incompetent leaders – oh my god!!
On a lighter note – I hardly ever take selfies, but this is me on our terrace – not bad view behind me, right?
We’re still under lockdown, of course, but managing nicely. We have good food and beautiful weather, but are staying close to home. I always carry my passport now when I leave the house, and we’ve gone on some nice long walks in the surrounding hills with the dogs without straying more than a couple of km from the village.
On our walk today we actually saw a carabinieri (police) but they didn’t stop to ask us for our ‘form’. There are only two cases of the virus anywhere near us – one in Deruta and one in Marsciano, so we feel pretty safe.
We saw our neighbour Angelo today and asked about his neighbour Rita, who is older and feeds Chairman Meow when Angelo is out of town – he says she’s ok and he takes her a few groceries, etc as she needs them so she doesn’t have to venture out to the store. Neighbours looking out for each other – simple concept!
Everyone seems pretty calm in and around the village and the surrounding area – folks are pruning their olive trees, tending their gardens, mending stone walls, etc – no panic to be seen, and still no bare shelves in the little Conad store – not even a shortage of toilet paper.
Ok – someone has to explain that to me because I’m having a hard time believing that TP is the most important thing to hoard – personally if I was to panic – and I won’t, I think I’d rather have food!
I’ve been using the new Nikon much of the time recently but went back to the Canon on our walk today just for fun. I’m very pleased with the photos I’m taking from both, although I do need to learn more about what the Nikon can do.
We did go for a ride that same day – lovely blue sky but not too hot. I realized right away on the first hill that the motor in my bike wasn’t working, which was a big drag as we had several climbs on the roads we were on.
After pushing the heavy tank up more than one hill we got to a high point that made easier riding for me back down to the house. It turned out that all that was needed was a quick cleanup of the contact points on the control pad – problem solved, thank goodness!
The last two nights there’s been a vehicle driving very slowly through the village with a loudspeaker blaring. I couldn’t catch much of it up in our ‘medieval’ portion of the village, but we assumed it was about staying home and avoiding crowds – this was verified to us by the brits that we met again on one of our dog walks.
We went for another nice bike ride this afternoon, and was it ever nice to have the motor working – some of the back ‘roads’ are very steep. The wind was so fierce it almost blew us off the road at times, but we persevered. We did notice that there was very little traffic on any of the roads – folks seem to be keeping close to home, as recommended by the authorities.
There’s more than one home-made banner hung on the balconies of houses down in the piazza coloured with rainbows and the words ‘andra tutto bene’ – everything will be good.
Even in ‘the red zone’ that we’re in there’s no panic, and the local little store is still fully stocked, including toilet paper – what is it with other places and the obsession with TP?!?
The bar was still serving, but apparently they now have to shut at 6 pm and patrons have to keep 3 feet apart from each other. We were still able to sit outside and it wasn’t a problem, and the dogs still got their usual treats from Antonio.
We’ve been using my hand sanitizer, and are careful about getting near anyone, or touching anyone’s hands, etc. We’re not panicking, but also trying to be careful. So far none of the shops we’ve been in have empty shelves or seem to be running out of anything. We did buy more food than usual in Marsciano, hoping to go out once a week rather than every few days for supplies.
We’ve charged up both of the electric bikes and plan to start going for rides – if we can’t go south to Sicily as planned at least we can still get fresh air and exercise without endangering ourselves or others.
Well, things have changed again – all cafes, restaurants and bars are closed completely, as well as the post office – drats! We’ll have to make our own coffee now and sit on the terrace instead of down at the bar. And if we want to go anywhere there’s a form we need to fill out stating our destination and explaining why we should be allowed to leave the village.
After a wonderful few days at the coast with my very dear friend Lorna I made it safely to Italy. I love you Lorna!!
The flight from Van to TO was almost full, but the flight on to Rome was at most half full. As soon as they announced that boarding was complete there was a mass scurrying of passengers to the empty seats – some got a full row to themselves.
Colin was there to pick me up and I got to meet his new rescue dog Henry – a little sweetie.
The next few days were spent wondering if the races I came over early for were going to go ahead – right up until Wednesday evening we thought it might be ok, but then the bad news came. Not only Strade Bianche was postponed, but also Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro di Sicilia – so disappointed!
We did have a nice day trip to Trevi for lunch one day, and have been regular patrons of the bar – Antonio makes a decent cappuccino and fusses over the dogs. We met a very nice british couple at the bar – they own a house in the village and are staying for an entire year. They know the area well and told us where an excellent butcher is in the next village – we picked up some excellent lamb chops for dinner the next day. We couldn’t see any chops in the display case but when the butcher understood what we wanted he went to a side room and brought out a leg of lamb then cut two nice thick pieces for us.
The weather has been mixed – pouring rain a couple of times, then other days beautiful sunshine, although not yet really hot. We went on a nice long walk yesterday and I tried out the new Nikon D7200 camera that Colin very kindly got for me. I still love my Canon, but can see that having more than one camera has its advantages, especially at a race (if there were any down here!).
We’re not in a ‘high risk’ area for the coronavirus as it’s mostly up north right now and our plan is to go south to Sicily in a couple of weeks. So far there doesn’t seem to be any panic around here – stores are still fully stocked and folks seem to be going about their normal business. Hopefully it stays this way.
We did get some more disappointing news, however – there’s an annual festival here, the ‘Festa di San Guiseppe’ and they fly large balloons from the village square, including ones at night with candles in them. It looked very interesting and we were excited that we would be here for it, but it also has now been cancelled out of an abundance of caution over the dreaded coronavirus – darn!
We’re still able to get some race watching in, albeit on tv – Paris-Nice is going ahead so all is not lost.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 