Starting a Self-Imposed Isolation

The trip home was smooth. Too smooth. We flew from Florence to Frankfurt to Denver to Durango.  It was about the time that we landed in Denver that the CDC raised the Travel Notice for Italy to Level 3 -- Avoid Nonessential Travel. But as we entered Germany and then the US, there were no temperature scans, no mandates to wear masks, no recommendations on how to interact with thousands of other travelers en route to all parts of the world. The only question we received was from the US customs agent asking if we brought any good Italian wine back (We did not. We consumed it all there). Ironically enough, the only country to scan our temperatures was Italy upon our entry, and that was before they even had any known cases of COVID19.

So we have come home after being in multiple areas in Italy with known cases of this new disease. As such, we've decided to impose our own quarantine for two weeks.

Of course, the mere suggestion of cutting ourselves off immediately from others ignites the desire to get together with friends. I so want to go out for a beer and burger at our favorite brew pub or tacos at our favorite Mexican food restaurant. With our friends. Never had a poker party at our house, but now it sounds like a really fun idea. Dance party? Yep. Book club? Most definitely. Any activity with friends that we haven't seen in oh-so-long sounds great right now.  Never mind the fact that we wouldn't have seen them for another two weeks anyway.  We can't see them now, and that makes the longing that much more significant.

Friends have been grateful that we've decided to self-quarantine and have offered to bring in food.  Fortunately, online grocery shopping exists. And online books and streaming videos.  Now I admit that I have scoffed at the idea of online grocery shopping.  Who doesn't have time to procure their own food at a store? It's not like we grow it ourselves anymore. Besides, I like picking out my own produce.  However, breathing on produce clearly violates our effort to protect our fellow Durangotangs, so this morning we ordered our groceries online.  It was easy. They did a great job picking produce for us. We won't starve during our sequestration, and I certainly won't judge anyone using this service.

The Vernazza seaside trail

We are going to allow ourselves to get out and exercise. I would go absolutely stir crazy without this allowance.  Chris would simply combust.  We feel fortunate that a hike in our part of the world won't look anything like the hike we took in the Cinque Terre on the supposedly-closed trail between Vernazza and Monterosso. It was packed, and this was low season. People were all over the place.  That's not the case here, so we should be okay.  And so should our neighbors.