{"id":343,"date":"2020-03-19T15:50:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T15:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/?p=343"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:47:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:47:04","slug":"19-march-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/2020\/03\/19\/19-march-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"19 March 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Numbers of new virus patients are rising; the numbers of dead in Italy are staggering and continue to mount here and elsewhere.\u00a0 I think about Europe and the Black Death.\u00a0 I know the virus is not the plague, but the news is literally dreadful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borders are closing; it\u2019s hard even to keep up with the bulletins from France, Spain, Germany, the EU.\u00a0 Hungary sealed itself off without warning, jamming traffic and spreading panic.\u00a0 The Italian government issues a new decree daily, it seems, narrowing our lives further and making us more and more uneasy.\u00a0 The flow of humorous video and memes on WhatsApp increases frenetically as we struggle to maintain something like calm, patience, perspective. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Sunday a friend told me she\u2019s heard Air Maroc has suspended all flights to Italy.\u00a0 My husband\u2019s flight home on 30 March is cancelled.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to look for an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My husband wants so very much to finish his work in Sierra Leone, the culmination of three years of excruciating toil and hard-won, incremental progress.\u00a0 He thinks perhaps he might be able to hang on, bring things to a rational and orderly conclusion or at least the African facsimile of one.\u00a0 But his employer is searching for air tickets and says if he doesn\u2019t leave now he will have to ride out this pandemic in place.\u00a0 She encourages him to pack his bags, get out while he still can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end it\u2019s not an exit but an escape.\u00a0 He packs two small bags on Monday night and goes to the office Tuesday morning as usual.\u00a0 We speak via Skype, he tells me the wheels are turning, he\u2019s received his itinerary and must leave quickly to catch the ferry to the airport.\u00a0 He\u2019ll leave one suitcase behind.\u00a0 He will fly from Freetown to Brussels, with the obligatory layover in Conakry, then to Geneva.\u00a0 From Geneva he will come the rest of the way by train, first to Milano, then Torino, finally to Mondovi`.\u00a0 He says he\u2019ll be in touch by text or phone when he reaches Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday at 6 am I\u2019m worried; it\u2019s been almost 24 hours since we spoke.\u00a0 He replies immediately to my text\u2014he\u2019s just arrived Paris (Paris??), has an hour before his flight to Geneva.\u00a0 And so it goes for the next 24 hours.\u00a0 We text, we even speak by phone a couple of times.\u00a0 He sounds pretty relaxed and upbeat although I know he\u2019s already exhausted.\u00a0 I\u2019m online searching trains to Mondovi`.\u00a0 He\u2019ll arrive Torino too late for the last one, so I look for a hotel where he can spend the night.\u00a0 Miraculously I have two to choose from and I book a room for the night; he can get an 8:25 on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

At Torino things get a bit sticky.\u00a0 On arrival he\u2019s questioned closely by a carabiniere<\/em>: where is he going, where has he come from.\u00a0 The officer warns him of quarantine but finally lets him go to the hotel.\u00a0 The following morning, trains are being cancelled as he watches the Departures board, but not his train. He buys a ticket and takes his seat, after another encounter with a stern but compassionate carabiniere<\/em>.\u00a0 The 8:25 pulls out on schedule, arrives Mondov\u00ec at 9:30.\u00a0 I collect him from the station and we go home.\u00a0 It feels almost normal; we\u2019ve done this so many times over the last three years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tonight on the news we see that borders in some African nations are beginning to close as well. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Numbers of new virus patients are rising; the numbers of dead in Italy are staggering and continue to mount here and elsewhere.\u00a0 I think about Europe and the Black Death.\u00a0 I know the virus is not the plague, but the news is literally dreadful. Borders are closing; it\u2019s hard even to keep up with the
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