This is the start of my story of life on an Umbrian hillside during “self isolation” covid-19 times.

It’s only a week ago when we were told the schools were closing and lessons would be held by “Google Classroom” but it sure has been a fun week.  I must say I am very impressed with the way that Google classroom has worked, it allows teachers and students log into a virtual classroom with the teacher hosting the meeting and allowing interaction from the students.  My son Michele has been getting into “school” which has been our kitchen table for the week on time at 8am whilst I have been able to stay in bed and drink a good cup of english tea.  Maybe the way of the future.

When he has been at “school” I have been out to our local supermarket twice.  It is an event and brightens the day each time I have been .  So after completing my house pass out I bravely headed out.

The car park was relatively empty so a good sign.  Going through the doors I was asked to put on disposable gloves and to make sure I was at least 1 metre away from others.  All sounds easy but if I entered into someones space they immediately veered away.  I was so tempted just to cough and see how fast people but would move but decided to save that for another time.  Getting items out of the cooling cabinets was a whole dance on its own.  I had to wait then as soon as the current occupier of the space moved I was allowed to make my move making sure at all times to keep distance.  After getting the milk I had forgotten to take some cream so totally confused the lady behind me when I opened the door again before she had chance.   I tried to apologise afterwards but don’t know if she appreciated it since she had a face mask on 🙂

The cheese and meat counter was even more strict with lines on the floor for where you could stand.  Having safely maneuvered this I headed off for some flour, thought that making a cake would keep us amused for a while.  Whilst the UK seems to have toilet roll on its’ must buy list in umbria it’s flour.  It seems there is so much you can do with flour that everyone is getting it so the cake will just have to wait for another day.

The funny thing is that when you go skiing Italians hate to queue and you can guarantee there is never an orderly queue and you will have to elbow your way to the front.  The cash out was so orderly with people 1 metre from each other and waiting in turn I though I was back in the UK.  The only slight flaw in my shopping was that I had not put the bananas in a bag and to watch the assistant try to put them in a bag without touching them was highly amusing, I had to wait a few minutes before I offered to do it for her.  Seems that even bananas need to be protected from catching the virus.

Looking forward to the next few days to see what joys it can bring.

Stay safe and keep washing those hands.

Helen