Tristezza (Sadness)

Today’s overarching emotion is sadness.

Early this afternoon, with our bags in tow, we walked out into Cortona’s Piazza della Repubblcia. There were only three of us in the normally bustling piazza – Mary Pat and I and Luca, the Cortona-based driver who we had hired to take us to Rome’s Fiumicino airport. We had considered using the train from nearby Camucia, but thought that a car would offer less exposure – less risk.

Before we got into the van, the gloved and masked Luca gave us hand sanitizer and then asked us to get into the very back row of the vehicle. He explained that while he was permitted to drive us, there was a new “distancing” rule that allowed only two passengers in the car, and they had to be separated from the driver by at least two meters.

As we rolled down from Cortona’s steep hillside location, we saw no one. Mary Pat and I looked at one another and were overcome with sadness to leave – not only what we’ve come to think of as a home away from home, but the people there who we know are struggling through this experience of navigating through unknown waters.

Luca’s route took us down through an empty Camucia, then to an empty Bettole, where we got onto an empty A1 Autostrada. Anyone who has ever driven or been driven in Italy has likely been on this major artery that connects Naples to Rome, Rome to Florence and Florence to Milan. On what is normally a crowded, high-speed motorway, there was our van and handful of trucks. As we approached Rome and the G.R.A. ring road around the city, I thought we might see more vehicles – and we did, but only a few dozen. Likewise, as we approached the airport itself, there were almost no cars in either arrivals or departures.

We checked into the airport hotel, our “holding point” before our flight tomorrow. At the registration desks, plexiglass shields have been erected between the clients and the gloved, masked hotel employees. We checked in, got to our room and felt more than a little adrift. We recognize that tomorrow’s flights home and the three airports we’ll encounter (FCO to JFK to ORD) will offer our greatest exposure to the virus since we left Cortona.

Yesterday, we had spent some time saying goodbye to our friends in town. There were a few that we could see in person; the Fratoni green grocery family, the Molesini grocery store family (and their fantastic deli ladies) and Mario the florist. The rest were done remotely through messages, texts and video chat.

An actual highlight of our last night in Cortona was getting together via Zoom video chat with Kris, Mark and Jeni, three of our University of Georgia Cortona family who are still in town for a “virtual aperitivo” hour. Sharing that time, even via a tiny video screen, brought at least a little humanity back to our lives.