I find myself having to plan a business trip to one of those countries listed under E in the latest DPCM and realize that I have left behind in 2019 that lightness and courage to dare with which I used to prepare for a new departure. The pandemic has also taken away the poetry of planning, I say to myself. I open my laptop and the prophetic image of an airplane taking off appears, in the background a sunset.
I am reminded of those magical moments when, stepping off the airplane ladder, I felt on my skin the heavy mugginess of a tropical country or the pungent air of the global north, inside a completely new scenery all to be explored and discovered, surrounded by faces and words that were unfamiliar to me but would become so before returning home. With an ounce of enthusiasm and a slight chill in my heart, I take pen and paper and write down the steps to be taken. The first one has already popped up. After a week mulling over the decision to make, I have no more doubts: I’m leaving! Yes, because media terrorism has the power to insinuate limiting fears within us that do not make us choose lucidly. So I turn off the radio from which, every hour, an ominous voice reminds me that “the end of the world is approaching,” and I decide to rely on the scientific data that to date are unexpectedly encouraging and make me think that on the other side of the world I will find my own daily routine of masks and sanitizing gels, restrictions, precautions and social distancing but I will be in the shade of a palm tree and not within the walls of my home. Well, on to the second point: the quagmire. If in the pre-pandemic era it might have seemed complex to have to produce all the necessary travel documents so as not to get stuck at the border, in this day and age untangling the thousands of constantly updated rules seems like a mission impossible.
I decide not to get discouraged and dive into the fantastic world of Viaggiare Sicuri, which has now become the bible of travel operators and travelers. I dust off the notions learned in the basic project management course and organize the research by dividing it into two themes and three macro areas: travel documents and antigenic tests (the themes) to leave Italy, enter the country of destination, transit in a third country (the macro areas). A deep sense of gratitude for the high school math teacher pervades me: only by resorting to equations and calculus of probabilities is it possible to match times for producing tests and obtaining visas, permitted transits, and periods of fiduciary isolation with dates of departure and return. Meanwhile, my heart no longer rattles but I do not give up and move on to the third step: airline selection. Having passed the second step, this one is a piece of cake. Excluding all the non-permitted transits, mandatory vaccinations, transit visas and sky-high fares, the circle narrows and I let my instincts guide me. I finally print my ticket! The fourth step I would gladly spare myself but at this moment in history it is crucial: the search forhealth insurance.
Navigating through the ups and downs of caps, the all-inclusives that include nothing, and the thousands of exclusions that erase the hope of seeing a single penny again, I invoke some deity who can enlighten me on the best choice. I wonder if he is listening… I feel like a shell caught in a tidal wave but by now there is very little left and I let myself be swept toward the goal. I write on the calendar the deadlines of the various swabs I will have to undergo, print and collect a dozen or so completed visa application documents, and rush to the embassy. The official at the counter watches me in curiosity, thanks me for the accuracy with which I have provided the documents and, as lightly as a leaf in the wind, suggests that I monitor the site because just tomorrow the rules for entry are supposed to change. I don’t know how my adventure will end, whether I will make it out of Italy or whether, once at my destination, they will send me straight home; after all, the pandemic is a reality and we must learn to live with it by managing the risks and accepting the rules. I should feel unmotivated and out of energy, and yet, despite the uncertainty of departure, I bask in a blissful sense of happiness: I chose to dare by defeating fear, my body is still able to produce adrenaline, and I am back to being excited by imagining myself catapulted into a distant culture. If traveling opens the mind, planning the trip brings a smile back…it doesn’t matter when but I know for sure that one day on that plane taking off to distant destinations, shoulders to the sunset, I will be there too.
