178,972 positives in Italy. Up 1.7% – 23,660 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak.
1,348 positives in Umbria. One more death puts the total at 58.

746,379 cases in the US – 41,379 deaths. Wow. So many. 😢
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I find I cry easily nowadays. I cry at happy things. I cry at sad things. I cry at a beautiful piece of music. I can cry at anything, really, it can be something as stupid as seeing farmers planting their crops…hoping for a better day. Boo hoo…I’m so happy for them! And I cried while watching…

…the evening news here…and there was a very uplifting piece. They announced the closure of a number of intensive care wards in the hardest hit areas of Lombardia. They walked through rooms filled with empty beds and unused equipment. To see the joy of the nurses and doctors was incredibly moving. After all this time, finally the cases have slowed enough that they don’t need all the extra overflow wards for Covid. It makes it all worthwhile to see their joyous faces. These are the warriors. On the front line. Heros, all. And for my friends in the US I tell you, it is worth the sacrifices we’ve made, to be able see this.
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Meanwhile, in the United States… I am so ashamed.

Sometimes I have to call it as I see it and the differences between my two countries are stark.
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It is Monday morning. It is gray and rainy. But it just makes Italy’s Green Heart all the more green! If that’s possible. My gardening friends tell me we need the rain. And so do the farmers. So I am happy and will enjoy the rain. And my new terrace plants look happy too.

Stay home and stay safe everyone…  🌈 Andrà tutto bene…

172,434 positives in Italy. Up 2.1% – 22,745 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak.
1,337 positives in Umbria. Two more deaths at 57.

653,825 cases in the US – 31,638 deaths.
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I can’t believe today is the forty fifth day since I began posting. That is a long time. It is funny though, how easily we adapt ourselves to our new normal. I’m quite content. Other than missing walks outside, I am doing fine. And speaking of walks. I have devised a circular loop that remains all in the 200 meter limit from my house. I plan to go out for a walk today! Albeit in a loop!
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Someone posted this. It was attached to a tree. I can’t attribute it to an author. But it is exactly how I would have expressed my feelings, had I been a poet. And it is how I hope things will be…

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses and made new choices, and dreamed new images and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

One can hope something wonderful can come of this horror we are living through. I’m not going to say anymore because I don’t want to break the spell. I wish it would be so…

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Please, don’t listen to the people urging you to go out again, like before. It is too soon. 🌈 it will all be better soon…If we just stay the course. 

165,155 positives in Italy. Up 1.6% – 21,645 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak. Best numbers yet!

1,322 positives in Umbria. Up only one case again! Percentage near zero. One more death at 54.

639,664 cases in the US – 30,985 deaths.
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Today is the first day of week six! Our next milestone is May 5, I think.

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Today was the day. I was determined to get this damn permessi paperwork submitted to the Poste. We got up early so we could get there at opening time – 8:20am. And so we did…along with about thirty other people! Oh well. I was determined…even if Luther was not. So we joined the line down the block. Everyone had masks and kept a scrupulous 2 meter distance. An hour and a half later we walked back out of the Poste. Mission accomplished. Our appointment at the Questura is June 25. Coincidentally this is also the day our present Permessi expire. Good thing we aren’t traveling anywhere. I guess.

Speaking of travel. We do have some trips planned from far before this virus became our new normal. We are not sure at all they will take place. If they do go forward we will need to figure out some way to get a temporary Permesso.

Already I will be canceling our little two night trip to Slovenia June 5. That border is still closed. I will wait until early May to cancel. Hope springs eternal.

Our big trip is to Germany in late July/early August. We are/were meeting our Australian friends there. We will just have to wait and see but I think the Schengen borders will remain closed to the end of the year. If that is so, it will also impact a cruise we had planned around Spain with my sister and her husband. It was to be our annual get together also coinciding with Thanksgiving.

So, if we can ever be released from our lockdown, our options will be limited to travel inside Italy. Which is fine with me. I’m sure most people would say we have an embarrassment of riches to explore here. There are many places I have not yet seen, and also places I would like to see again. All that said…will I really feel safe to travel? I truly do not know…
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Tomorrow I will share pictures of my newly planted terrace. 🌈 Andrà tutto bene…

156,363 positives in Italy. Up 2.7% – 19,899 deaths.
1,319 positives in Umbria. Up 0.7%.

546,874 cases in the US – 21,686 deaths.
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Easter dinner. Very scrumptious. Racks of lamb. Potatoes Dauphinois and eggplant with tomatoes in saffron. 

Today is Pasquetta…little Easter. It is, and always has been, a holiday when the Italians go out and enjoy nature and celebrate after Lent. Usually with family groups, or friends and a big picnic…or they go to the seashore. Of course, none of this will be happening today. 

Being Monday of yet another week on lockdown it is a little depressing. It doesn’t help that the skies are gray. But I know we are marching towards the light at the end of the tunnel. We will get there one day. 

Spring flowers – so pretty and cheerful…thank you Jill!

Short post today. 🌈 Andrà tutto bene…

152,271 positives in Italy. Up 3%. 19,468 deaths.
1,309 positives in Umbria. Up .5%.
This was a slide backwards a bit for us and a large rise in deaths 😢

519,453 cases in the US – 20,071 deaths.
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Buona Pasqua a tutti. It is Easter. People will be celebrating alone or with whomever they live with in their homes. Strange. It really goes against the grain to not gather with family. There are happy excited voices from the little house behind us…it’s a old lady and her husband…nonna and nonno to an extended family…sounds like they are all there today. It’s scary. They are quite old. Maybe the family could have given it a miss this year. Or not. 
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Yesterday was Sabato Santo… Holy Saturday. An amazingly pretty day. Sunny and upper 70s.

The Sindaco, mayor, of Umbertide did a nice address to the town. We all lit candles and placed them in our windows to honor our dead, and our health care workers here in Italy.

Otherwise we were very productive yesterday. We both did some cleaning, vacuuming, mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms. I also finished our packets for our Permessi renewals. We need to get the packet in as we are approaching the 60 days before expiration day. Not that the Questura are doing anything right now on this.

You may remember back before this viral apocalypse we had high hopes of trying for our Long Term permits. Well, that all has fallen by the wayside. We are still one document short and no way to get it now, so we will just apply for the Permessi again and maybe next year…

I got my sewing machine out as well. It’s plugged in and standing at the ready. Soon I will sew some masks. But we can’t rush into this.
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Easter Sunday. Today I got to go out of the house!! I was meeting Ely (Calagrana) with our Sunday deliveries. I carefully chose my wardrobe…and I carefully applied my makeup. 🤣 

I took the opportunity to carry out trash and I also was carrying Ely’s boxes from last delivery. The Carabinieri slowed and watched me walking with my trash…I guess I passed muster as they kept going. Whew! I whizzed across the bridge. And parked behind my bush. Ely arrived, with a fashionable face mask. We unloaded and loaded boxes. It was nice to see another person. Then my friend Heather came,  and another I didn’t know…we were all masked. So strange.  I was happy to hear from Ely they just “may” be able to survive if they can keep delivering food. It is so worth it to us to support them. We get good food, they can stay afloat. We wouldn’t want to lose them. They are our friends…but also they have a wonderful place which we would all miss.

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Buona Pasqua a tutti. Of necessity quiet but for the best. Enjoy the day. Stay home…stay safe. 🌈 Andrà tutto bene.

147,577 positives in Italy. Up 2.7%. 18,849 deaths.
1,302 positives in Umbria. Up .3%. 52 deaths total.

486,994 cases in the US. 18,022 deaths. Catching up to Italy 😢
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I learned a new thing today…don’t microwave your mail! I had heard that was a good way to kill the virus…well, I’m here to tell you it is NOT a good idea. It set my mail on fire…and now I’ll never know what that letter from the American Embassy said! 😂
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From a news article…liberally shortened for brevity by me.

A community on the (US) Pacific Coast had its own brush with covid-19 after a party appears to have spread the virus among the political elite.
It was a birthday party…someone was COVID positive. They spread it. This was in early March. [When the dangers were already known,… Eye roll.]

A dozen got sick, including the mayor.
“It’s always the hindsight,”  [another eye roll. they knew it was stupid] he said. “We’re all singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Even if it’s just one person who’s infected, that’s gonna get airborne. It lands on the cake. And we all eat the cake. So there you go.” He had “four days of hell,” complete with headaches and hallucinations. But he emerged with a hard-won respect for just how serious COVID-19 can be.

To not gather, he said, goes against every instinct. But given the potential consequences, those instincts will have to be denied — at least for now.
“Humans like to be around other humans. We need to be around people,” he said. “Now we’re just going to have to figure out again how to do that safely.”
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Yesterday was Good Friday. Normally there is a holy procession throughout the streets of the old town. The priests, the coffin of Jesus, and a statue of the mourning Mary. The town band playing dirges, and the townspeople following behind. Today, we had nothing. Sad. Below is the empty Via Grilli. Our street. So quiet. Normally the procession follows this street.

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Sadly, another Saturday without our local kilometer zero market. What are the farmers doing with their produce? I wish I knew. We have another market box coming from Calagrana tomorrow. I congratulate myself on using up almost everything I got last week, except for potatoes and onions…but they will keep awhile.

Tonight I will have either Pasta with Fava beans, or shrimp risotto. Here are pictures of the beans…

Next I boiled them for about 5 minutes. Now I need to skin them. Then we will be ready for dinner…I think the Risotto will have to wait.

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Stay safe all my friends…stay home…🌈 Andrà tutto bene…

Today, I decided change my title from Corona Virus, to COVID-19. Here’s why.

1,298 positives in Umbria. Up 0.6%. 51 deaths total.
Amounts up from yesterday 😕.

452,582 cases in the US. 16,129 deaths.
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A group of us on Facebook have a page for those of us around here. We were discussing garments for the isolation. For myself, I just change from night PJs to soft yoga pants and tunic tops. Very comfy. Then back to night PJs. Of course, if I’m going to take out the trash, I put on makeup, and change into good jeans and a sweater. Keeping up appearances is SO important… 👄 👁

Another friend mentioned they’ve rigged up a box outside their house for deliveries. Then when they get food or a package they take it to the disinfecting station, he said. Well, I was duly impressed that his town even HAD a disinfecting station! I was envious. Umbertide doesn’t have one. So I asked him what it was. Turns out he and his wife have cleared a storeroom in their house and a potting table and they put any new things on it and spray with a disinfecting solution. Then put on shelves for 72 hours. This, they call, their disinfecting station 🤣😂  Hahaha. Joke’s on me.
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Death rates are going up in most nations who shut down a couple weeks after Italy. We also had this here. The death rate lags significantly behind the infected rate, as we are now seeing in NY. Don’t be discouraged.  It is to be expected as the very sick are dying behind the curve.😕
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Wowzers moments!
”When the British government asked people to help the National Health Service (NHS) during the coronavirus crisis, it called for a “volunteer army.” Within four days, 750,000 people had signed up — three times the original target and four times the size of the British armed forces.”

To me this defines the British spirit…takes me back to stories of WWII days when every last British citizen was doing “something” in the war effort….we need this now. Everywhere.

I loved, loved this little story…” Michael Hayes, 55, is a taxi driver who joined the volunteer army and is awaiting his first official assignment. In the meantime, he spends about five hours a day driving NHS staff home, at no cost, from Newham University Hospital in East London, where his three children were born.
“Some of them come out, they’ve had dreadful days, the worst . . . and they are walking out thinking, ‘I still got to get home,’ I’m sort of like a little ray of sunshine,” Hayes said. “They see me sitting there and I whiz them home.”🥰

Happily I can report some of the same in the US.
Celebrity chef José Andrés’s organization and Nationals Philanthropies are partnering to use the [DC] ballpark as a cooking and distribution site for free meals in the community. The effort’s production capability target is 50,000 meals a day.
Kudos to José Andrés and Nationals Philanthropies!
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Last night we had hamburgers…absolutely Luthers favorite meal. I would roll my eyes but well, you get the picture. I do a small patty for myself and have it with a nice salad. It is OK.

Yesterday I heard from two long lost friends! It is SO good to touch base again. One from AnviCom, my favorite company to work for during my working career. It was really like a family. And the other a friend who worked mostly with Luther on a project. She has retired to her ancestral home in Kennebunk Maine. Happy to touch base again. 🥰 Sometimes a tragedy like this has silver linings of a sort.
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It’s a beautiful new day now. Sunny and mild weather for days on end. I would love to plant something. Maybe it’s too early. I just would love to see flowers on my terrace. Here are some more flower pictures, and a picture my neighbor got of the pink Super Moon.

Stay safe and stay the course…don’t give up. We are doing it! 
🌈 Andrà tutto bene…