I’m back and I think I’m ready to connect again. For a couple of months, I missed my virtual connection to my readers- friends and strangers alike. Strange times for us all, and even though I had a lot of time the last few months to fill you in on my life here in Salerno, Italy, I just couldn’t bring myself to sitting down and actually typing the first sentence…any sentence.
All the writers out there know what I’m talking about. I shared this recently with a dear friend and she said it’s not necessary to write my whole blog in one sitting, perfect editing included, which is what I normally do. She said ‘gather some ideas and then later use them as different paragraphs’. Whaaaaa ? You mean actually organize my thoughts? What a concept. She said ‘have a main subject, put it in a circle and then have other ideas connected like spokes on a wheel.’
Now, I’m normally an extremely neat and tidy person, a little too organized for my own good (as a little kid, instead of playing street games with the other kids, I preferred to organize my sock drawer, or re-arrange my first cute little handbag copying all my mom’s girlie junk from her handbag…linen hanky, fake lipstick, PLASTIC ACCORDION RAINCAP, coins for church, if I was lucky enough to have any, a prayer book and holy pictures that I rather enjoyed trading with my schoolmates. The colored ones with gold dusting had way more value.)
But I’m a grownup now, well, mostly, and my mind works differently. I can no longer rely on linear thoughts to nurture my creativity because my brain is all over the place. (and maybe that’s a good thing.) I DO need to be more mentally organized but I fight it. And guess what? Today I’m doing my daily power walk on the lungomare and it hit me. It’s June, almost officially summer, and as I glided through a truly spectacular day of Italian sunshine, perfectly-timed breezes to cool down the heat under my mascherina and rows of oleander trees in bloom, it came to me.
LIKE THE FIRST COOL SUMMER BREEZE ON BARE FEET, THE QUARANTINE VEIL WAS LIFTING.
There it was. My first sentence…not brilliant, not profound. But it was that image of being on the first picnic of the season (pick a year, any year) and boldly removing my socks and sneakers (yes, I said sneakers-deal with it) and feeling that indescribable sensation of a gentle breeze running through my toes, circling around the arch of my feet and then dancing a happy dance on my ankles that inspired me to begin my blog again.
So, as I continue to enjoy the memory of this sensation, it simultaneously connects me back to the present where I feel that our quarantine here in Southern Italy is nearing its eventual end. God willing and the creek don’t rise.
As of today, we are still required to wear our masks outside and continue to practice social distancing. 50-50 on the mask wearing and nil on the social distancing. Everything- and I mean everything- in Southern Italy is up close and in your face. Including the face of your neighbors who are waiting in line at the fish store, or at the casalinga (homemakers’) store, or just walking reeeeallly close on the narrow sidewalks. Social distancing in Italy….I don’t think so. Initially in the first month I would walk in the empty streets to avoid the germy people on the sidewalks. This was only possible because cars and motorinis were prohibited from driving, and I didn’t have to worry about getting mowed down. Deciding what church to have my funeral service in, out of the 50-odd churches in Salerno, would be way too time consuming anyway.
But I digress. Ah, the quarantine, the virus, Covid. Call it what you like, we were (and still are) all fearful of the second and third wave and with all the accompanying questions, not unlike AIDS of the early eighties. Only worse. Contagion still seems infinite and out of our control. Unless of course we do the extreme quarantine again of EVERYONE staying home. Period.
I did manage to keep my sanity by starting to cook and eat healthfully again (after one year of recklessly experimenting with Italian desserts like Dr. Timothy Leary experimented with LSD.) Fun, yes. But unlike LSD, visible physical side effects. So, off to YouTube I went for every kind of cardio exercise I could find, upper arm exercises to repair the damage of no more Equinox gym on a daily basis, energy healing like QiGong and Tapping to keep me in a positive frame of mind and to not rage at the TV with every depressing newscast. And most importantly, I resurrected my old way of eating as I had before The Big Fat Move to Italy- no flour or sugar but lots of veggies and enough protein.
A tall order for any sane person living in the land of pasta, pizza and pastries, but it has been keeping me very busy with shopping in the little fruit and veggie markets and then cooking up a storm every day, twice a day. The results are in and the weight is down. Yay for me!
And thanks to technology, I like everyone else, discovered Zoom meetings. My Los Angeles Game Night continued every three weeks, which sometimes turned into a catch-up gab fest, and meetups with my language exchange friends in Naples and Salerno a couple of times a week. Expats already have occasional bouts of isolation in their new host country, but this quarantine had the potential to put us over the top. So the Zooms were invaluable to me on so many levels. I hope to continue some of them even after we can slowly start going back to our lives, whatever that may look like.
Many of the “are you and the family OK” phone calls turned into more regular calls. Once our minds quieted down, we discovered we needed the social contact, even if only virtual. We needed to see the faces of those we loved to express that love and gratitude. This was not always an easy feat considering the East and West Coast time differences, but worth the occasional mix-ups of a message ding at 2:00 in the morning.
During the pandemic, Skype seemed to get overshadowed by its new baby brother Zoom, but my English lessons continued on Skype which felt like an old familiar friend. It took a little getting used to proper pronunciation with the occasional delay, but it is better than the way it will be when we eventually go back to lessons in school wearing masks. I really love teaching English and look forward to these lessons-more necessary social contact with eager and interesting students.
So much of the pandemic forced us to be alone with ourselves, but also to let our beautiful planet try to heal itself. There was no annoying sound of loud motorcycles with accompanying exhaust or cigarette butts carelessly strewn about the streets and sidewalks. My constant cough improved and the skies took on a clarity I hadn’t seen in forever. When I resumed my daily power walking down by the lungomare, the water was crystal clear-no cargo or cruise ship waste to muck up the sea! I knew it wouldn’t last forever, it couldn’t possibly last forever, but while it was there I could imagine Planet Earth saying a silent Thank You…oh and sorry I had to send you that nasty pandemic to remind you of who’s the boss.
–Running some errands today,I noticed the streets felt the same as before except with most people wearing their mascherine, but the restaurants looked different. The bigger ones weren’t open yet, but if they were it was just for their outdoor cafes. Some smaller takeout places were open but with a line outside. When a friend and I decided to go for a bite to eat, we ended up in a takeout place that had a small counter for two or three people. Too hungry to wait till I got home, we ate there. And guess what…no social distancing. I know the owner and she seemed to leave it up to our discretion. She wore a mask and disinfected our table. I guess it was enough we were wearing our masks until the food came…really! So much for social distancing.
Consider this your up-to- the -minute report of life in Italy with Covid. Soon we can go outside without a mascherina, but must wear one in stores and restaurants. And this is only for our region of Campagna. The rest of Italy, go figure. Phase 3 will begin on June 25, but of course anything can change by then.
This is Italy! And I love it.
Until next time, be well, be safe and wear those mascherine!
Maria Grazie, proud proprietaria… We All Don’t Cook OK, readers, not everyone in Italy cooks ALL the time. Some of us have better things to do…like hope our newfound friends will invite us to their place for the authentic stuff. And if I say a really serious novena, they’ll have air conditioning. Unlikely, but I can always hope. (lack of air conditioning and ice are a whole other topic here in Italy.) Long ago and
The featured photo above looks like a Duomo but no, it’s The Gesu Church. The entry to the University campus in Napoli. Reasons for Dual Citizenship Ciao amici ! I’m happy to report I received much positive feedback on the last blog about why I moved to Salerno Italy. Thank you all, and especially to those of you who are interested in obtaining your Dual Citizenship (herein referred to as DC, because, well, I’m lazy…and
I have been fortunate enough to convince my good friend, since the first grade, Antonia, to become a guest blogger on the site. Antonia recently, ( mid May 2019 to be exact) received her Italian Citizenship. It’s been a long an grueling process from what she tells me. But lucky for us she is going to give us first hand information on the process and her exploits as an American woman that moved to Italy.
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