Sunday, 22 March, 2020
Day XIV of the Italian Coronavirus Lockdown was scheduled to be grocery shopping day at the Esselunga Supermarket.
It would be exciting to legally leave The Bunker for only the fourth time in the last two weeks but I was a bit apprehensive.
Why? Because of a pair of late Saturday night Coronavirus Lockdown announcements on TV.
The first one came from Attilio Fontana
The President of the Region of Lombardia
Due to the increasing Coronavirus deaths in Lombardia, the Lockdown would be extended another 12 days until at least April 15th.
Also, there would be even more restrictions. The only one that would apply to the average citizen was the shutting down of individual sports, i.e., jogging and bike riding.
I was way ahead of the President on that restriction.
About an hour later, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte held a press conference where he basically echoed Fontana's comments to the entire country.
I wondered if this would be the tipping point on Italian's finally starting to panic buy at their supermarkets?
Thus my apprehension as I left for the Esselunga.
A good sign as I entered the
Esselunga's underground parking garage
One half of the garage had been closed off and the other half was only about 25% full.
There was no queue to enter the store, once inside I found that . . .
. . . all the aisles were . . .
. . . still FULLY stocked!
Red and white tape?
Some things were
NOT FOR SALE!
We are only supposed to be out buying essential items.
Apparently things like housewares, clothing, school supplies, etc. are not considered to be essential. Those types of items, while still on the shelves, were not for sale anymore.
TOILET PAPER!!!!!!!!
Eat your heart out America!
The check-out queues
were almost non-existent
Well, that was easy.
My drive back to The Bunker was uneventful as I only saw a couple of people out walking their dogs and about five cars on the road.
I quickly settled back into my Bunker routine of alternating the reading of Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth with watching TV shows.
This was a good one!
I enjoyed this version of the
Agatha Christie classic better
than the two movie versions
Now for some news from the world of American football in Europe, aka, EuroBall.
France has joined . . .
. . . Switzerland in canceling their
2020 seasons
The rest of our EuroBall world has
postponed their seasons at this point
Rumors are that Spain will be the next to cancel, we'll see.
So what about the Italian Federation?
We are the European country with the largest and deadliest Coronavirus outbreak to date.
What are our people thinking about the season?
Who knows, they are not giving us any hints as to what they are thinking.
The official FIDAF website still lists DII as having games scheduled the weekends of March 21, 28, April 4, 11 and 18 even though teams are not allowed to practice or play and the National Lockdown will be in force now until at least April 15th.
I like what Sweden's Federation has said according to a Swedish coach that I know. Now, remember that their season starts much later than ours due to the colder weather in Sweden.
Their Federation has decreed a May 1st start to the 2020 season.
If that is not possible, the season would then start on June 1st.
If that is not possible, then the season will be cancelled.
Plain and simple, everyone in the Swedish American football world now knows what to expect.
I truly wish that FIDAF would come out with a similar line of thinking.
Until then, we'll all be drifting, not rowing.
A final extremely sad note from Milano . . .
Paolo Crosti
American Football Pioneer in Italy
Paolo Crosti, a man that I never met but had always heard good things about, passed away today from complications with the Coronavirus.
He was the lifelong leader of the Rams Milano American football team and known to everybody simply as Big Ram.
Our small American football playing community in Italy suffered a big loss today.
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