Saturday 21st — Thursday 26th March… Days 11–16 Part 5
Getting on with it
Saturday 21st — Day 11 of lockdown
I went to the local shop to pick up my order this morning, I phoned it in yesterday, but I still had to wait for a while outside.
No problem. No real rush these days — even for an impatient person like me — that’s really nice. One lady, when she arrived, asked if I was last, and I agreed I was. I smiled at her, and then realised that she couldn’t actually see me smile because of the mask. I told her what I was thinking… she probably smiled back.
Sunday 22nd — Day 12
At the moment I am trying to work through my ‘to do’ list, but I can see that any day now it will be time to start on the garden. Actually, I made a small start a few days ago, on seed-trays. I couldn’t find my proper ones, so I improvised…
Monday 23rd Day 13
The other day a friend and I were Whats Apping (is this a new verb? And if so, how is it spelled?), and we agreed, did ever a newish system come along at just the right time? So many people now relying on it. Skype and Facetime are good, but for me WhatsApp is much better.
I would be lost without my computer, tv and WhatsApp. Thought… how would this lockdown have been if it had taken place 20 or 30 years ago? I don’t have Italian tv, because for so many years my Italian wasn’t good enough. It might be now, but once they went digital I cannot receive it anyway; and also truthfully, in my opinion, it’s really not that good — with the exception of Montalbano of course, (and, interestingly enough, Ispettore Barnaby — otherwise known as Midsummer Murders). So, my tv comes courtesy of an Expat TV service; there is a little box attached to the tv and a controller, no trailing wires or messing about with the laptop. There are around a hundred channels, including all the Beeb, ITV, and Channel 4 channels. Sadly, my wifi is still pretty poor in the evenings, especially now during the lockup.
Tuesday 24 Day 14
I always knew that yesterday was going to be the last really warm day for a while. On Sunday I was sunbathing in my bikini in the back garden… today… just two days later, I am watching the snow fall… SNOW! Really? Still.. this means less temptation to soak up the sun in the limonaia, and thus more work can get done in the house.
The other day a friend sent me a light-hearted email, which one was supposed to fill in and pass on. Question; Three things you are wearing: My answer: Two days ago it would have been t-shirt, bikini, and not much else. Now its thermal socks, several t-shirts, warm tracksuit.
Wednesday 25 Day 15
Woke up to snow on the rooves of houses and cars… the world really is going mad!! It snowed here on and off most of the night… people have already sent me photos of where it is lying quite thickly.. ie Cortona and above. Here, just down the hill from Cortona, there is a dusting, but I don’t think it will last very long. Cortona generally gets snow once or twice a winter. Down here it rarely amounts to anything much, whilst anywhere above Cortona may well be snowed in for a few days. Many people, myself included once upon a time, think of Italy, apart from the mountains, as a hot country. But here, winters are harsher than those I was accustomed to in London, with night-time temperatures frequently falling below zero. A couple of years back it dropped to -14C in Cortona for a couple of nights, and -13C in my back garden. And a year or two previously we had two heavy falls of snow, and the lake was frozen near the shore!
Of course, in the summer it is hot, increasingly so. Even when I first came here it seems to me that summers were cooler — it would go above 30C for a few days now and again, maybe a week or more. Now though, most summers it pushes 40C, or even above, for days at a time, it seems relentless, and even the lovely thick stone walls which generally keep the houses cool, heat up and act as radiators. You head for bed at 11 and it is still 30C outside — to open or not to open? … that is the question. If it is still a degree or so cooler inside, what should be done about the doors and windows? What about the night they tell you that they will be coming around to spray against mosquitos, and that all windows and doors must be closed all night, and all animals kept indoors!!
If you talk to the old people, they say that summer temperatures have definitely increased since the days of their youth. Even more, that the seasons are not regular as they used to be. Once you could, and they did, plant according to the date, (and the cycle of the moon), with complete confidence. Now the seasons are all over the place. When I first came here, and probably still now, there were calendars showing the phases of the moon, and when and what should be sown, planted, pruned, or harvested. At the time I found that somewhat strange. Now with more and more people interested in organic food and, especially biodynamic crops, these ideas seem that they may have more foundation.
Sting and his wife Trudy have a biodynamic vineyard not far away, and I went to a lecture about it. They came for the well-known, but sadly now defunct, Under the Tuscan Sun Cortona Festival. He did a concert, and she gave a yoga/pilates class that I went to. Those were the days… Sophia Loren, Robert Redford, Jeremy Irons, Sinead Cusack, Anthony Hopkins, all gave performances in our lovely little theatre. We had amazing opera stars like Renee Fleming, Jose Cura, Angela Gheorghiu, Cecilia Bartoli. There were also concerts outdoors in the square; I remember, in particular, the touring Bolshoi Ballet.
The festival was set up in 2003 by author Frances Mayes, impresario Barrett Wissman and violinist Nina Kotova, all of whom have or had houses here. People came from far and wide, and it was relatively inexpensive, with discounts for residents. In the end it got too big for its boots, and too expensive for the commune of Cortona. It went to Florence but I don’t think it ever really took off there in the same way.
Thursday 26th Day 16
I heard today that a third of the humanity is now under lockdown — it really is hard to comprehend this surreal world we are all living in. I don’t understand why in every broadcast I hear, and every article I read, virus figures of one country are being compared to those of another. For instance, Spain v America. Surely this is quite pointless? Wouldn’t it be far more to the point to compare percentage of population affected. America has a massive population, Italy a relatively small one; so, it seems to me that only percentages are a valid comparison, but no one is doing it. Why not?
