Month: May 2020

Hellooo. I went home to Milan and back to see my ‘congiunto’ whom I hadn’t seen for more than 70 days, and that was a good excuse to collect some summer clothes and drop the furry lined parkas etc which do not go down very well by the pool.

It was really strange to get to Milan, where I normally live, and see people wearing face masks everywhere. I am going to try to explain. I got really used to people wearing face masks here in the country, it was a gradual process and here is not ‘my normal’. Little by little everybody got to wear them outdoors and all handymen etc do wear one when they visit your home. But this is a holiday home, a weekend getaway, so in a sense it is acceptable in its lack of ordinariness. But Milan is my home. And normally people there show their faces. But now, all of a sudden tey have their faces covered. It felt a bit as if I popped in a Silence of the Lambs scene. Or Handmaid’s Tale. Something weird. Really weird.

But now I am here again, and happy to be. As of today we are in the next phase, which I am not sure it is phase 3 or phase 2.2. There have been more video messages from our Prime Minister who is inordinately fond of Facebook (his Communications Manager was a contestant in Big Brother, so maybe that explains it). But the details, the modus operandi, the agenda is so unclear. We now have a new Prime Minister Decree which is 400 pages long, and which has changed several times in the last few days and whose final version was apparently only confirmed at 3.30 am today. The health minister could not take it any longer and went to bed after switching his phone off, so our poor PM was left all alone to fend off the regional governors who all wanted tailored solution for their very special regions.

One thing is sure. The media talk about today as the ‘Liberi Tutti’ phase. The best translation I can think of is Ollie Ollie Oxen Free. Restaurants are now open and bars too. Unsure as to how many meters distance we need to keep from each other, but I am sure someone is going to get fined soon for doing something stupid. So to celebrate Ollie, my congiunto and I went to the closest restaurant for lunch. We asked to be sat outdoors and beautiful it was under a jasmine pergola in full bloom. The expectations were high. I am sorry to report that I got so used to eating good food at home that I hated it and couldn’t wait to get back home.

To make things worse the only other customers were a bunch of fascists, the most vocal of whom stated (looking at us) that he goes to pay homage to Mussolini’s tomb six times a year. No comment. Tolerance. Kept my cool. Idiot. He then started talking about Silvia Romano, at which point I gave him a serious warning to stop right there in his tracks. This was a big man accompanied by other three thugs. But my tone was bigger than them. I think they got the message, excused themselves and left.

Then we had the War of the Roses.

Back home I decided to do some mild rose pruning. It rained in the past couple of days and some of the roses looked a bit sorry for themselves so I cleared mine, the next door neighbour’s, then I moved further away and got close to a rose bush outside the no vaxers territory.

I cleared the dead heads, and then saw two really yummy roses, cut them and then walked back home to put them in water in a vase. I kind of sensed the Yeti had woken up and was trying to stand next to me in all his height (unfortunately for him shorter than me). I behaved as if he was a grizzly bear, did not run nor acknowledged his presence. Went home, put the roses in a vase, went out again and there he was standing looking at me. Ignored him.

Then I received two messages in which he asked me not to cut the roses, because he takes care of them and he likes to look at them (although they are not in his garden, there is a plethora of roses and I only took two and I am the one who does the pruning as he is incapable). I said sorry I didn’t know they were his roses. It would have stopped there, but some people do not know when to stop. Pity in fact that he added that I should cut the roses in my garden which are so very beautiful. Yes I said, they are so beautiful that your wife really likes them and comes to cut them… it went on until I blocked him.

So pathetic. The misery of life. The war of the roses in the time of coronavirus.

We now live in Phase 2. This means we can do a little bit more than we used to.

We can move a little bit more within our region, but still subject to various constraints. We still need to carry a piece of paper with all our ID details, signed admission that we know the rules, declaration of why we are out of the house. If we get stopped at a road block the policeman still has enormous room for interpretation of the rules, and often a fine is imposed without good reason. There was of course a case of someone stating he was going to buy drugs because he was having a withdrawal crisis and he was fined as that was not classified as a necessity. Other case, a family of four driving to go to a park for some physical activity (allowed, wandering, just for the sake of it, not allowed). They were not wearing masks in the car. So the policeman fined them because the rule is that they have to wear face masks if there is more than one person in the car. It didn’t matter that the four people all lived together in a small flat. Without masks. There was also the man driving his sick dad to the hospital (wearing masks), but whereas driving to the hospital was considered a necessity for the dad, it wasn’t so for the son. He was fined.

Some bars and restaurants have opened but so far only as take-away business. So for example we had a case of someone who having bought his espresso in a paper cup saw a friend outside the bar and exchanged a few words (at a safe distance) while sipping his coffee. He was promptly fined €280 as he had not taken his coffeee away from the bar far enough.

On the other hand there are many breaches of safety. Mostly people who visit relatives or friends thinking that because of the level of closeness of the relationship they must be safe. So we have the seven new members of a household nearby (yes, you guessed it, it’s the no-vaxers at play again) roaming around everywhere, being extra super friendly, children invading the pool etc. The two elderly ladies have had a hairdresser and a nail technician come visit, all wearing face masks and gloves, but I wonder was that really necessary? I am personally still very scared.

Btw the no-vaxers have announced that should there be a vaccine tomorrow they will of course not get inoculated, big pharma will not make money out of them, and crooked Bill Gates will not make any money from that household. I have desisted from commenting. They volunteered that the cure for Covid-19 has been found and tested in Mantova’s hospital and it is the plasma. So if they were to catch it, it would all be dealt with it swiftly. I said I desisted and I will keep my word.

We have had a brief interlude from Coronavirus news. The young Italian aid worker who got kidnapped 18 months ago in Kenya and subsequently sold to the ISIS Somalian warlords was released supposedly against ransom paid by the Italian government and returned to her family. Many people kept on writing to the authorities to not forget Silvia Romano while she was held captive, and everybody should be happy that she was returned home alive and in good health and spirit. But that was not the case. Silvia converted to Islam of her own free will, according to a statement she made, and made her appearance coming out of the plane in Rome wearing a green jilbab. She also said she was treated well by her kidnappers. Headlines: Islamic and happy. Silvia the ungrateful. We have freed a muslim. She should go back. She married her captor and is pregnant with his child (she placed a hand on her belly while she was smiling to the press and authorities, better than a pregnancy test).

OK. I am so ashamed of living in Italy. Of being Italian. Even people whom I thought were open minded were debating whether she converted of her own free will or not. Well educated people are saying things like ‘She does not convince me’. Or venturing guesses that she might have been friendly with her captors and have orchestrated all this to allow them to make money with a fake kidnap. Converted of her own free will: remind me, did we give our consent when we were all christened? Was this fury shown against other people who converted? Is being a muslim such a horrible thing? This is a country which has freedom of religious cult as one of the main pillars of its constitution. But this is being conveniently forgotten now.

It’s a country in which half of the population wants to let migrants die at sea because we have too many, and ‘lets help them in their home’. Well, Silvia was helping them in their home. But now she is an idiot who could have instead helped handicapped Italian children rather than putting herself in needless danger, wasting our country’s scarce resources.

There have been worse things said. So bad that the poor girl will now need bodyguards after 18 months in captivity, to protect herself from her newly found freedom. Just like, yes exactly like the elderly senator who survived the Holocaust needs bodyguards to protect her from the haters who emerged after she invoked the creation of a special committe to work against intolerance, racism and anti-semitism. I want to scream, rebel, do something. I feel for that woman, for her family. I wish they were granted the privacy they so deserve. And so I will desist from further reactions. Or at least I will do my best to do so. But I will not forget these comments. Ever.

Going back to everyday life, I went on a very long walk along the river two days ago. It was amazing. Back to nature. That feeling of freedom. To remind me of Covid-19 there were the cyclists wearing face masks. I also was wearing mine and as the weather got warmer I had a feeling of what is going to be like in summer. The face mask got soaked and I had to get back home. It was unbearable. That feeling of not quite freedom. Here is a picture of a tree feeling the same, all covered in poplar’s fluff, not breathing.

Tomorrow hopefully I drive back to Milan for a day to get some summer clothes and more swimsuits, oh yes I have been swimming lots since I last wrote. It’s excellent as a meditation technique although maybe a bit funny to look at, with mask, snorkel and my feet tied to the ladder through some elastic band structure. I also have a large kitchen clock at the opposite end of the pool to check for how long I have been swimming, as there are no laps to count. I promise next time I will post a picture of this for your entertainment. For now, here is another rare selfie by the pool.

See you soon xoxo