Update from Italy as lockdown eases

Karen, thank you for the update. I'm glad to hear that all 3 of you have remained safe and well. Enjoy the fresh air!

Karen, thank you for your hopeful updates. So glad to hear you are staying healthy despite your recent emergency appendectomy. Great to hear all of you (including Barley) were able to enjoy beach time. All the best as Italy continues to make progress. Your report made our day. Keep us posted. Hugs to Barley!

Thanks for the update! Glad you all have stayed safe and healthy (other than the appendectomy).

Thanks for the update!

Hi Karen — I have been thinking of you all as we knew you had such a complicated summer planned out to perfection. I am sorry you won’t be able to get to do all that traveling — and see the family and friends that I think you were meeting along the way.

So sorry to hear about your emergency appendectomy, hope all is well from that now.

Poor Barley must be soooooo happy to have gotten to go a little further.

Hope you are all well.

Brad, my opinion, but can’t see Italy allowing any travel from outside he EU, especially the US by July. Restrictions are gradually being released, with two weeks between. If cases spike, back to the previous phase. We have reservation for a restaurant (#1 in the world) for June 17 in Modena, and are concerned that train travel between regions or travel for tourism might not be allowed by then.

Hold tight and odds are high your flight will be cancelled if travel is not allowed without a 2 week quarantine.

@Karen, what is the name of that restaurant. I think we saw a 60 minutes episode on the chef. He feeds others who are less fortunate as well I think.

In an earlier post, you indicated you were moving back to USA. How long can you stay in Italy? Have they enacted automatic extensions to Visas?

Any plans on how you are getting back, since the boat option got torpedoed ( sorry, could not resist )

Believe it is Osteria Francescana.

hey hey folks and barley
glad to hear the update, as life leads you in different directions, and barley loves that dog beach.
all your hardwork and research for your adventures before leaving europe is up in the air. so disappointing for everyone involved with their travels this year, wondering "who, what, where, when and how". questions and answers that can not be answered.
i had a flight to kona may 11 to 29 to see family and 2 graduations. that went down the tube, would need to quarantine for 14 days at sister's house, sequested inside, no way so it's cancelled. i'm retired and can go anytime, will wait when hawaii is opened and have a postponed graduation party then.
are you planning to come back to monterey area or napa/sonoma area? i'm sure you've been reading up about the bay area slowing opening up in phases (good or bad) don't know but will see how things work out.
happy you have recovered and staying healthy.
aloha

Thank you Karen. You, and the Italians have been amazing through all of this.
Could you tell us how you managed to do food shopping.
What sort of cooperation and solidarity struck you?
How will you be returning ( or maybe you've decided to stay).
Best to you.

Thank you for this post. So many of us are waiting anxiously to see if we can make our dream trips to Italy and we crave the updates. We are here in far Western North Carolina 2/10 of a mile from the Georgia border. It sounds like Italy is handling this more responsibly than Georgia is doing. So we are staying on the NC side of the border and shopping for food there when necessary.

We have booked a flight for October 29 with arrival in Milan on the 30th. We planned to travel around Northern and Middle Italy including 10 days of a Rick Steves tour of Venice, Florence and Rome. All told this will be three weeks in Italy. This to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I know you don't have a crystal ball but do you think this will be doable and safe by then?

Thank you, Karen, for this timely update. I know you are thankful for these small pleasures. Barley chasing sticks again-what a picture! I keep up with you through Barley's blog and your FB page and think you've extended your stay in Verbania? Can you just have a "do over" next year, following the same plans you had made for this year? I, like others who have posted, am standing in admiration of Italian commitment to working together to make this situation better and not forging ahead with no real plan and little promise of success. It does sound as if there have been small steps forward. Good stick hunting, Barley! Thanks for posting, Karen.

Wow I sure hope you get to dine at Osteria Francescana. We met a couple in Rome last year who managed to nail a reservation for one of the twelve tables. But she had some connections through the food media business. If you ever get to NY (and they are still in business) try Rezdôra. The chef spent time in Modena and, although not as refined as Osteria, the pastas are the best we have had anywhere.

Thanks for updating us. The restrictions in Italy have been much greater than we’ve seen here. Hopefully this early opening up we are seeing will not lead to a resurgence that leads to real home confinement as you experienced.

Joining the chorus of appreciation to hear from someone inside Italy on you situation. I have followed your adventure avidly and as a former resident of Rome, wondered at your experience during “this.” it will be a cultural experience you will always remember as exceptional even though at times it was frightening and ever inconvenient.

Please let us know as things progress and what this means for your planned return. Many days I look back on our Italy time and am sorry we didn’t stay one more year.

I hope for June La Francescana restaurant will be opened and travels between Regions allowed (at the moment is still forbidden move between different Regions except for working reasons). Meanwhile, due to the lack of people outdoor, in the main square of Modena grass has started to grow between pebbles: https://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/modena/cronaca/coronavirus-piazza-grande-erba-1.5133594 . Is something new and strange, of course.
In two months with a very low amount of cars and people outdoor wildlife in general start to approach much more to villages and houses here in Italy :-D

Thanks for all the thoughts.

Yes, restaurant name is Osteria Francescana. It’s been in my husband’s bucket list. Our original reservation was made early January for April 30, the beginning of our summer travel adventures. But as things transpired, we’ve been watching for open reservations, and continue to reserve a table further out, hoping restaurant reopens, and we can actual travel by train to Modena. So we’ve gone from April 30 to May 12, to June 5, and now June 17.

Tom’s other by bucket list event was a professional soccer match at San Siro stadium in Milan. In January, we bought tickets for March 3rd. This was cancelled a week before as the Pandemic in Italy as escalating. And this won’t happen until there is a vaccine.

We just picked up packets to reapply for our Permesso di Sogiorno (permit to stay). Ours expires August 8th. Unfortunately, nothing in Italy us automatic, including stay extensions.

Cunard has cancelled QM2 cruises through end of July, so likely ours for August will be cancelled. Unfortunately, impossible to plan anything definite as the future continues to turn into the unimaginable.
But, we are in contact with a pet relocation company and will work with them to get Barley back to US. He’s so big, he can’t fly as baggage on a commercial airline. But now we have flexibility to choose timing, and both departure and destination airports, taking weather, Covid news, and flight duration into account. So for now, thinking second half September and flying into Chicago or Denver. Our home in Monterey, California is rented out until Oct 31, but we have relatives and friends between Chicago, Fargo, and Colorado, until we move back home on November 1. Worst case we can stay in Italy longer, but without traveling, makes us want to get home.

Grocery stores gave been open and fully stocked. (No shortage of toilet paper, flour, or meat.) Up until Monday, only one person is allowed to leave apartment for essential needs, food shopping, health, or essential work. We live about 1/2 mile from a LIDL grocery store, and 3/4 of mile from Esselunga (like a big Safeway). Toms been doing all of our grocery shopping for the last two months. The number of people are limited inside so a socially distant line forms (waits can be up to an hour). Masks are required, and Esselunga takes temperatures before entering. During lockdown, our red shopping cart lost a wheel, so Tom’s had to use backpack and shopping bag. Non essential aisles have been roped off in stores. Tomorrow we will start looking for a replacement cart.

We haven’t seen anyone get mad, raise their voice, about waiting in line, wearing a mask, nor protesting or defying lockdown rules. Although, I’ve heard in the south, Italians were getting restless. But in our town of Verbania, very compliant.

Ricky, we noticed the same thing about the landscaping. Overgrown, unkept, and grass between the cobblestones. We’ve seen lots of landscape maintenance in the last three days. The small park across the street from apartment was trimmed up today. And yesterday we saw 3 ducks walking down the sidewalk in front of our apartment building, two blocks from the lake. They are probably wondering, what are these people doing here? The dog park, which was still closed on Monday, is normally dirt. We walked by and it is now a luscious green grassy area.

We are lucky that our Province has a relatively low infection rate compared to other parts of Italy. 5 cases on March 9th, and less than 1100 total cases as of today, but less than 10 cases per day over the last two + weeks. (Population of 190,000). With the proximity to Milan and Lombardy, and many commuters by train to Milan, I was surprised Verbano-Cusio-Osolla wasn’t hit worse.

As things continue to evolve here, I’ll continue to post. But I think Italian leadership here are doing the right thing and opening up slowly while they watch the statistics.

This website has lots of graphs tracking the data. Daily totals updated 6pm Italy time.

Italy Covid19 graphs and statistics

Hi Karen, thanks for the update! We are still hoping to go to Dolomites this August..

Adding my thanks to you for your post. Italy is a favorite destination, and I'm glad things are improving.