Fuori dalla Padella (Out of the Frying Pan)

On Thursday, March 19, the U.S. State Department raised the travel advisory to Level 4 – their highest warning. The statement on their website is: “U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period.“

While we love our adopted second country, as an Italian friend, recently returned from the U.S. said, “It’s time to be where we officially belong.” we know that we can’t be here for “an indefinite period,” so we have made the difficult decision to leave Cortona and head home to the United States. We fly out of Rome on Monday, March 23 and should be back in our home in southern Wisconsin by late Monday night.

Going from an environment where, if we went to the grocery store, we might see or interact with four or five people to navigating through three airports and being with hundreds, if not thousands of other people is certainly a bit daunting. Combine those fears, with what we see happening in the U.S. as the virus spreads and infection rates grow there, we feel as though we are stepping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

But, with a U.S. president who is angered when asked a softball question about what he’d say to Americans who are scared, we face the very real possibility that the U.S. borders may close at any minute and we think it is prudent to get home. Like everyone else in the world, we hope that there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

Now, to pack up our apartment, and, from a distance, say goodbye to all our friends here in Cortona. Noi torneremo (we will be back).