One Year On
“Andiamo”
Last July we flew from Oslo and Copenhagen, wearing masks for just a few hours and armed with Norwegian ‘anti-bac’ hand gel. It was early on in the Coronavirus pandemic, at a time when very few people were travelling, and neither Norway or Denmark had been affected very much.
We arrived in Rome to a post-lockdown Italy. Case numbers were very low and the country had re-opened fully. During that summer life continued as normal, just with face masks in shops and hand gel everywhere.
A lot has changed since then. Everyone has been affected by the virus in some way.
This year, vaccinations offered hope. We’re not vaccine cynics. We received TB jabs at school like everyone else. Moving to Zambia, Rabies was one of many inoculations that were recommended. Travelling to Ethiopia, we received a Yellow Fever injection. We carried that vaccination certificate with us when we moved to Nairobi, and it was asked for every time that we we travelled to a South African border. If there had been a vaccine to protect against Malaria I would have happily taken it, rather than suffering with Malaria twice.
Italy has worked tirelessly to make vaccines available to all. The Carabinieri helped. The Alpini d’Abruzzo, with their feathered caps, were there in the vaccination halls to oversee operations.
To date over 105 m vaccines have been administered in the country (ref below *). We are thankful to have received two doses of the vaccine. And we’ve received our digital vaccine passports, affording us the freedom to travel within EU countries, without any PCR tests or quarantines.
We were socially distanced from everyone and everything for so long. And we’re not wired to stand still. So, it’s time to travel. We’ve been grounded long enough.
Travel is a little more complicated than usual. Our checklist looked like this:
- Get vaccinated
- Obtain EU vaccine passports
- Book flights
- Complete Passenger Locator forms, for the authorities
- Book airport hotel
- Book airport shuttle
- Fill out l’autocertificazione anti contagio (and hand the form to the driver )
- Pack extra masks and hand gel
One year on, we are travelling again.
Are you travelling too?
© Maggie M /Mother City Time
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/1196071/covid-19-vaccination-rate-in-europe-by-country/