Month: March 2020

Another sunny and unbearably beautiful day. Nature is coming to life one month earlier than due. If we weren’t worried about the virus we would be worried about climate and the idiots would be swearing against Greta.

I secretely contemplated going to visit my favourite garden centre in the area. Its called quattro d and specialises in graminaceous plants. These are perennials, low maintenance and different from the usual stuff you see in ordinary garden centres. But then I thought it’s in the nearest village and if I find a checkpoint they will at least fine me 200Euros (and if I happen in the future to catch the virus they will send me to prison). So I decided against going and here I am. Thank you for the rules.

Yesterday I planted some dahlia bulbs in the garden and cleared the flowerbeds. That’s all I did. I feel very hyperactive and wish I could match the activity level of the ants which have sequestered all the slug pellets I poured on the fresh soil. Hey I had no clue ants love Slug pellets.

Cleaner just visited. She was stopped at checkpoint within our village territory. She told the police she was going to collect the daughter of a neighbour who doesn’t have a driving licence and was working at the local supermarket. They told her this is not a valid reason and suggested she instead should say she was going for some food shopping. Italy for you.

Just spent about one hour sitting in the sun chatting with one of the neighbours. One meter distance as prescribed. The neighbouring ladies wanted me to take them to one of the cachemire outlets near here (really good stuff). But fear of checkpoints…

As things are going by tonight all shops except for chemists and foodstores will be shut in the region. I don’t really mind, and it’s a good thing that the temptation to go out is curbed completely. The sooner the better the way I see it.

I suddenly feel very privileged, as if I had any doubt. I received a video msg from my sister in law, locked in her bedroom ironing, in Rome. She showed me a book my brother gave her to read. The diary of Anne Frank. I could kill him. I told her to get out and go running in the park near her house. It’s all uphill so not many people take that path and she should be ok. I told her to run fast, hoping the endorphines will help her regain her usual happy go lucky attitude. I am so happy to be here and not locked up in a flat in Rome or Milan. Every time I open the door this is what I see

And those are mulberry trees. Imagine in a few months yum yum

And here we go. Title from the Guardian says that ‘Italy’s coronavirus death toll rises 31%’. I trust the Guardian, much more than the Italian papers. A few days ago I found myself tweeting to all Italian journalists that while they are busy copying stuff from the WHO website they could do with some Google Translate help. No, recovered means ‘guariti’ not ‘ricoverati’ (ricoverati which sounds terribly like recovered actually means hospitalised). Having said that, I wish I did not trust the Guardian so much because 31% growth in death toll after three weeks is horrendously scary. Yes I am dead scared.

I can cope with that. I know how to take my mind off fear and stress. But the minute I sit down and reflect I suddenly feel horrible. My IBS (long gone) has returned with a vengeance. Two kilos down since I arrived here last Friday. It seems that my guts know what to do even when my mind is elsewhere.

Yes, I spent a long time figuring how to post a photo, phew I managed. That was a good distraction for this afternoon. I did manage to avoid news reports and the stock market (just once this morning). Now I need to cook dinner for myself and I really dont feel like it, but no way out. I need to remember that good eating habits will make me stronger should I be so unlucky.

Latest news, the largest Italian department store La Rinascente (imagine Harrods or Selfridges you lot) and a few high end stores symbols of Milan fashion have just announced they will shut down voluntarily until 3rd of April. Good old cynical me thinks its because their turnover is no longer sufficient to cover costs until things get back to normal, but I may be wrong. I so wish to be wrong and that this is a sign of civilisation. But in a country where people suspected of carrying the virus spit in the face of doctors and nurses I have actually lost all hopes of civil behaviour.

Good night everybody see you tomorrow x

Hello everybody, here I am from the lockdown zone

This is the first time I am writing a blog, so please forgive any mishaps and other amenities. I was prompted to write as I found myself inside the lockdown zone in Lombardia, Italy, luckily in my beautiful country home, rather away from all urban life and other forms of what I consider civilisation. It’s been circa two weeks since coronavirus first appeared on the Italian soil, after one good month of warning from China, which I am afraid no one here took too seriously. We in fact had a government concentrated on power games, the opposition concentrated on various forms of destructive behaviour, the general public in total denial (skiing holidays and aperitivos being the most frequent forms of denial explicitation), the ‘experts’ busy on how to extract most money and fame from the situation, and various other idiots compounding the scene. We experienced as in China rapidly escalating numbers of infected people and subsequently rapidly increasing numbers of dead people, although thanks God for the vast majority it was patients with other serious medical conditions who suffered the worst fate. Even dummies now know what is logarithmic growth.

It started off with the initial spread in a hospital in a small town south of Milan. It later became apparent that there were two different protocols in place for how to deal with the typical Coronavirus patient. And so it was that it took quite some time for the first patient to be identified as such and in the meanwhile this hospital was transformed into a massive Petri dish, and the town of Codogno became the first virus hotbed in Italy. Being northern Italy the most productive and active region of Italy, characterised by high mobility due to work relations, before one knew, the virus had spread to quite a number of other less known but nonetheless productive small towns.

At the time I was in a remote ski resort at the border with Switzerland, not so many Italians, but really many people from northern and eastern Europe there. I thought it would be unwise to take the runs which necessitated using a closed ski gondola, so I had become a pain to my partner who was a bit more relaxed about this, and was choosing my skiing itinerary based on the prospect of using only open air chair lifts. After a while I stopped skiing and stayed home. Eventually the virus spread got worse and tourists started cancelling their holidays not so much for fear of catching the virus there, but mostly due to the fear of being quarantined once back in their countries of origin. The ski resort got progressively empty. Bar and restaurant owners increasingly depressed. And I got very bored and restless especially because it had started snowing heavily and being locked up in two rooms was not my idea of heaven. I even started having visions of my bum sagging due to inactivity. ‘Figures’ as they say in Milan.

So at the first chance I escaped. I bought a first class train ticket and travelled in splendid isolation to Milan. It took me three days home in Milan to prepare for my final escape. I loaded my car with books and clothes and SHOES and travelled to this country house in the middle of Pianura Padana, the large Po Valley, in Lombardia. I arrived here last Friday, and found that on the same day in the nearby houses a few couples of elderly people had also arrived to run away from ‘the plague’ and stay safe.

Milan in the meanwhile was living a schizophrenic moment with people wanting to prove that life goes on. ‘Milano non si ferma‘ was the logo of the day for a few days. They even printed trendy T-shirts with the logo. Images of youths drinking outside bars along the city’s canals dominated Instagram and made their way to the papers. Parents decided to take their kids for a skiing holiday to the Alps or even better to the nearest beaches in Liguria, thanks to the good weather. Photos of packed ski resorts and beaches also appeared on the national media and eventually someone alerted our Prime Minister.

On Saturday evening the news that the government was going to declare Lombardia a red zone, in lockdown, was leaked to the press. As usual I kept my wits, and decided that there was no point running away from here because the virus would spread anyway from here, and that if I were to catch it, I’d rather be treated here than in some hospital in the south were corruption, nepotism and incompetence might be present, or even in London where BloJo is now determined to let the virus run amock among the population.

On Saturday night a few people called to check on my well being. My mother in Rome was unwiswly having a dinner party at her home. She seemed very happy though. A British friend called thinking I would be rather upset by the developments but was happy to find me in very good spirits and suggested I started a blog to communicate with the rest of the world what it is like to those who will get to this point later. And so thank you Anna for goiving me this idea. And thank you Sheila for helping me set this up.

Ski resorts were shut. My partner who had decided to remain in the ski resort was left with not much to do but listen to the news all day. I am happy here, with books, garden, netflix, cooking and the elderly neighbours. It feels a bit like a holiday for now. I ration the amount of news and do not look at the stock market. I concentrate on good things. I might even see the Clematis bloom. Last night the whole of Italy was put in lockdown and there are rumours that it might get worse, with only food stores and supermarkets allowed to stay open.

I will report to you news from the lockdown also known as the red zone. They say it will be until April 3rd. Sperem as they say in Milan, let’s hope so.