I’ll tell you my odyssey between quarantines and tampons
The post by Gaetano Sateriale, former national director of the CGIL and former mayor of Ferrara, between quarantines and tampons …
Landed in Fiumicino on time on Friday 14 August, we enter the airport directly from the finger. The provisions of Minister Speranza on returns from Greece have already been in force for 2 days. We expect (from Greece) to be directed to some welcome point. Nothing. Let's go, equipped with a mask, to collect the luggage at belt 7 (Alitalia from Athens), even here there is no one. Once the suitcase has been collected, all we have to do is go out and ask where the tampon that the newspapers talk about is made. Finally we find a sign (see in the photo) that explains that there are 2 possibilities: I did the tests in Greece before leaving or you get a swab within 48 hours of arrival "at the local health company of reference" . I wonder what "reference" means: your ASL where are you resident? Or the competent health authority in the area where you are? I believe the second since the sign of the international airport of Fiumicino indicates (also in English) a freephone number for Lazio. I still have some doubts. In the meantime, let's get the car left in the long-term parking lot temporarily hosted by the short-term parking lot (the one attached to the terminals).
It had happened that at the start we had tried to take the car to the long-term parking lot, following all the road signs. When we got there we learned from a taxi driver that it was closed (there was no sign) and that we had to go back to the airport and go to the short stop. We lost half an hour with some risk for the flight but in the end everything went well. At the stop drinks we were told to enter and then, upon arrival, to go to the information and ask for the long stay rate. So we did. They asked us for the Telepass with which we had entered and everything went perfectly. 118 euros for 15 days of parking. I asked what the discount was and the attendant explained that in the short stay the ordinary rate was more or less than 100 euros for every three days of parking. Very well.
We got into the car with a brother-in-law and a grandson (15 years exactly 2 meters high) we left for Orte. At the exit of the toll booth we unloaded them waiting for their relatives who would come to pick them up there (and that we did not cross). Along the highway we had a coffee and filled up (always with a mask on). After a couple of hours we arrived at our destination. In Tuscany, in the province of Siena, at the in-laws' house in the countryside where we have always been housed in a separate room (with independent bathroom and all the rest). We dined outdoors together with the in-laws (with mask at home). Then we went to sleep because I got up at 5.30 (Italian time) to give the boat the last cleaned up and arranged. (Goodbye Donna Rosa: next year, you 41 and I 70, we hope …)
The next morning, around 9, not wanting to waste our 48 hours to take the test, we drive to the nearby town. The country where we have been going for thirty years for breakfast, shopping, other purchases (including pharmacy). We go to the usual bar for a coffee. We with a mask, the customers sitting at the table no. We say goodbye to the hostess who recognizes us and prepares the usual Ristretto and cappuccino without foam. We notice a French gentleman who continuously enters and exits the bar with the mask always on his mouth and not on his nose, skipping the line and ignoring the distances. We look at each other with the bartender, we help her to understand each other with French and we say hello. Let's go get money from the ATM. Then we decide to go to the pharmacy (which is a stone's throw away) to ask where to go for the tampon. We never did! In 3 minutes all the "Promessi Sposi" passed before our eyes: only we were the greasers!
The pharmacist is selling a lot of products to a lady dressed all in white who is clearly a health worker. We try to be nice: “Excuse me, just one question. Where can we go to swab, we arrived last night from Greece… ". The pharmacist (whom we have known for thirty years) yells at us: “I'm working! Go away! You have to stay in quarantine! Go to your home! " We are thrilled. We reply that in the sign at the airport it was written that we had to swab "at the ASL" and we just wanted to know where to go to do it. The rude one starts screaming again: “Noooo! You must be quarantined in your home! Go away !!! " We go out in disbelief and get back in the car. 200 meters from there is the newsstand of the newsagent. We stop to buy the newspapers. The newsagent gives them to us through a window (we always with the mask while sitting in front of the newsstand there are several people without). Suddenly a stranger starts yelling at us: “You, we know your name! You have to go home and not go around the country! You have understood? Stay at your home! " We are astonished and we also begin to get pissed off … Never in life have we ever been treated by public danger: by Manzonian “greasers”, in fact. We go home still incredulous.
I throw myself on the website of Sanità Toscana and what do I discover? That Tuscany unlike Lazio (hence the Fiumicino cartel) obliges anyone returning from Greece, Croatia, Malta and Spain to a "fiduciary quarantine" awaiting the swab. The pharmacist was right! Although, being a health worker, she should have explained to us and not insulted us… Out of curiosity, I also look at the Emilian health site (since we are resident in Emilia) and I discover that in Emilia one goes to have a swab done without a fiduciary quarantine obligation. In short, we are spreaders in Tuscany but not in Emilia and not in Lazio. The village of Harlequin …
We try to soothe the anger (and humiliation) of how we have been treated. I swear that in that pharmacy I will not buy even a toothpaste anymore (this is little but sure) and we try to regularize ourselves by strictly following the rules established in Tuscany. So I fill out the declaration of origin and domicile with all the data (including the car plate) on the specific site of the Region (which, to be said in parentheses, contains the word "welcome" in the link: I laugh …). The page says that once you have completed the registration form you will receive an email with all the necessary instructions. Well! since Saturday morning at 10 we have not received anything yet (at this time it is 8.50 on Monday 17). For safety, I also registered today (see photo): no email received.
I get on the phone and spend, with some breaks, the day calling the toll-free number 800 556060 and selecting sub-number 2 for those who want to book a tampon. The answer for 2 days is always the same: “at the moment you have more than an hour to wait to speak with the operator, please call later”. This also happens yesterday, August 16. It is true that Saturday was mid-August and yesterday was Sunday but I played my 48 regular hours! And then, if the offices were closed why not say it on the phone and why say that Sunday would be open from 9 to 13?
Yesterday I reluctantly decided to call 118. Reluctantly because I think 118 is to be called only for health emergencies and luckily ours is not an emergency (whatever the pharmacist thinks). Instead I found understanding, help and great kindness. The lady told me who replied that they would come to swab them at home as soon as they received the notification from the ASL Toscana Est. Perfect, thanks. I also asked if, according to her, we could go home to Ferrara (where there is no obligation to quarantine). He replied that if the police had stopped me (from the registration number registered by the ASL) I would have incurred a penalty. I have thrown back to call the toll-free number but, up to now, without success.
We still stay here in the house with a mask and have lunch spaced out. But I wondered, if on the return trip from Fiumicino the police had stopped us for checks, what would have happened? The answer is insane: if they had stopped us in Lazio, no problem, if they had stopped us in Emilia, not even. But what if they stopped us in Tuscany? Sanction only because we were in Tuscany? A lot of respect for the Tuscan regional administration and its decisions but it seems really surreal to me …
I like the Italy of the Municipalities. We have been like this for at least 800 years. I am proud to be a citizen of Ferrara, which has nothing to do with Rovigo or Bologna or Ravenna or Modena: dialects, idioms, proverbs, habits divide us, starting with food. In short, I like the city identity. But having 20 different regional citizenships in Italy? A delusion founded on nothing. Or better: a only bureaucratic citizenship …
PS: 9.35 am on Monday 17: the toll-free number of Sanità Toscana has been called several times, always answered as above. Called a private clinic that does tests, closed all week. I'm starting to get nervous …
(Extract from Sateriale's Facebook profile )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/vi-racconto-la-mia-odissea-tra-quarantene-e-tamponi/ on Mon, 17 Aug 2020 05:00:29 +0000.