Sunday, 29 March, 2020
Day XXI of the Great Italian Coronavirus Lockdown would be a full one by current Bunker standards.
It was Sunday which meant that it was time for my weekly trip to the Esselunga Supermarket for "essential" supplies.
But first, I checked out the internet for news of the world.
First up was a photo from India showing how . . .
. . . EVERYBODY is Staying At Home!
Yeah, right,
#45 our Fearless ?!#&^*#%@! Leader
In essence, the world was on the same path as yesterday, nothing new really.
So, I was off to the Esselunga with my face mask, gloves, hand sanitizer, filled out permission to go out form and shopping list packed and ready.
When I arrived at the Esselunga, new entry procedures were in full force.
We all had to go into a single line and
check in with this guard before entering
I was the only person in line when I arrived and then these two men showed up behind me.
As you can see, after three full weeks on lockdown, people here are not panicking.
So what was our guard up to? Simple really.
While our guard is watching, everyone who enters the supermarket MUST first sanitize their hands using that large white bottle next the man with the awesome face mask.
Once your hands are sanitized, everyone MUST then have the guard take their temperature with one of those new high-tech thermometers that just needs to be near your forehead to give a reading.
Happily, my hands were indeed sanitized and my temperature was normal!
In I went!
By the way there was no
shortage of hand sanitizers
Chocolate Easter eggs
are HUGE in Italia!
Ac Milan and InterMilan Eggs
are 33% off right now!
When I got home after a successful shopping day, I received a call from Roger Kelly in Sweden who heads up the American Football International website.
Roger wanted me to join him on an AFI Live chat to discuss what is happening all around the world with our shared sport and the Coronavirus.
I said yes.
4:00 p.m. Central European Time
7:00 a.m. Pacific Time
It sounded like fun . . .
. . . and IT WAS!
The chat lasted for about an hour.
Roger and I were joined by John in New York, Kaleb in Austria, Barbara in Italy, Felipe in Florida, Garrett in Japan and, later on, by Martin in Germany.
Getting a world wide perspective on Coronavirus and American football was interesting and educational.
Barbara who lives in Milan, works with FIDAF, our national federation. She was able to answer a lot of questions about what is going on with our season that, up to this point, FIDAF had kept to themselves.
In a nutshell, FIDAF will make a statement after the government makes their statement this coming Friday, April 3rd.
If the government then says that we can practice again, then we would start playing games at the beginning of May.
Given that we have had over 960 Coronavirus deaths on both Thursday and Friday this past week, I don't see how the government can say we'll be a go next Friday.
The other possibility under consideration, if the season gets pushed back farther like I think it will, is for DI and DII playing in a soccer style, Italia Cup tournament this year instead of having a championship season.
I think that she alluded to combining both 11-man Divisions into one for this type of tournament with no import players allowed.
If adopted, the tournament format would go on into August she said.
There was no mention of what plans FIDAF has for the nine-man, DIII football season.
We'll soon see, I think, where the 2020 Italian American football campaign is headed.
IF it is headed anywhere.
Stay tuned . . .
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