Losing Out to a Bug

Vernazza, one of the Cinque Terre villages. 

We won’t keep you in suspense. StephFest is losing out to Coronavirus. We’re cutting our trip short and planning to return to the US on Friday because of the escalation of cases in Italy. We became cognizant of the rapid rise in diagnosed cases after spending an awesome day on Sunday at the Viareggio Carnevale, a spectacle that brings hundreds of thousands of people to this coastal community in Tuscany for a one-of-kind parade and celebration. Packed trains brought many of us to the event.

The day before, we had spent a good part of the day on crowded trains en route to Cinque Terre, enjoying a positively gorgeous day along this series of small towns in the Italian Riviera. And of course, prior to that, we’d spent the week in Venice, wrapped up in its Carnevale.

We’ve had a week of celebrations unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Of course, these events also are the perfect scenarios for viruses just like the novel coronavirus, COVID19.  The nasty buggers love when a whole bunch of us vectors hang out together.

Carnevale in Viareggio

We are currently in a small Tuscan village, Radicondoli, so our exposure is much more limited than it was this past weekend.  Still, we’re watching the number of cases grow across the country and realizing we could find ourselves locked down in any community at any moment. Ahead of us is an 8-day trek through small villages in Umbria, so rather than push our luck and get quarantined in the middle of nowhere, we’re folding our hand in this low-odds, high-risk game.

San Gimignano, a Tuscan village

To be tourists in a country figuring out how to navigate a health crisis - a potential global pandemic even - is surreal. Chris and I are both planners, and we pride ourselves on figuring out complex logistics. But we are at the mercy of so many unknowns - just like thousands of others. All we can do is make decisions on what might happen. The risk of us getting quarantined somewhere away from home becomes more likely as this disease spreads.

The economic hit is significant. Both personally and globally. We’re bummed to miss out on the trekking portion of our trip, but the risk of further complications if we carry on as planned is more troublesome. The trip thus far has been grand so we will leave on Friday with many fond memories. There will be other long walks in our future. For now, we just want to get home without incident.