Happy New Year!
2022 is upon us and the world is a different place than it was before.
As always, gratitude is the name of the game.
What a spectacular gift we had this Christmas: a visit from grandma (aka: T’ai T’ai), who – at 90 years old and completely blind – travelled from Maine in the US by herself (!!) to a sleepy little town called Monteleone Sabino in the countryside of Italy right outside of Rome.
T’ai T’ai weathered international solo-travel, ever-changing Covid regulations, and the real possibility of sharing living space with wild roaming Italian boar.
Now that we’ve all returned safely and somewhat soundly to our respective homes, we wanted to express our gratitude for the many moving pieces that contributed to making this wonderful visit happen.
Aunt Kathy was a great help in getting T’ai T’ai prepared with a versatile wardrobe to be ready for any occasion, and getting her pills all organized for the week-long trip. I know that T’ai T’ai really appreciated the pre-travel scramble to make sure all was in place for the journey.
Cousin Shannon, of course, graciously offered to drive T’ai T’ai from Maine to Boston to be able to start the epic journey that included 1 layover in London before arriving at the final destination in Italy. Little did she know that the pre-departure Covid test we had ordered would end up not arriving, in spite of assurances from the company 2 days before that it would.
So, with 24 hours to go prior to “showtime”, Shannon made herculean efforts to whisk T’ai T’ai to the Portland, Maine airport, where we were able to secure a spot – in spite of the online service insisting that the 1st available testing spot was 3 days later. With plenty of time to spare, Shannon made it to Boston Logan airport and passed T’ai T’ai off to the lovely Special Assistance team, who took excellent care of her and getting her to the flight on time.
T’ai T’ai says that British Airways took wonderful care of her during the Business Class flight, with her own sleeping berth in the very 1st row, and an unlimited supply of champagne. What’s not to love about that?
On the Roman side of things, we were thrilled to see the Special Assistance guide exiting the airport right on time (what, in Italy, something on time??). We were not allowed to enter the Arrivals Terminal due to Covid restrictions, so we were nervous to say the least, as several wheelchair passengers passed us by. Then – behold! – we spotted the distinctive furry white cap, the chic Jackie O-style sunglasses, and that familiar laugh booming as T’ai T’ai joked with everyone in her path. You would never know that she just completed a 24+ hour transcontinental journey including cars, multiple planes, and the ever-present cloud of Covid all along the way!
The visit itself was nothing short of magnificent. Andrew, Hunter, Shade and I all appreciated so very much the efforts that T’ai T’ai made to come and visit us in our Italian abode and we are all exceedingly grateful for the quality time we had together.
The kids had lit a roaring fire upon our return from the airport and we proceeded to spend the remainder of the week enjoying home-cooked meals, chestnuts roasting over an open fire, fine wines, compelling conversation, festive games, and more.
We purposely didn’t plan on socializing to keep everyone safe, but our wacky neighbor came by one day with a generous basket filled with freshly-laid eggs for us. Virginia. Absolutely bonkers. She lives in the valley below us, with her 3 dogs, 11 cats, and 15 chickens. We sat on the outside terrace in the beautiful winter sunshine, enjoying some freshly baked banana bread with cranberries, as Virginia rambled non-stop for an entire hour. I did my best at simultaneous translation, but Virginia didn’t seem too bothered about being understood, she simply needed to unload. I believe the chickens are somewhat lacking in conversation skills. After an hour of talking at us in Italian, she claimed that she was certain that she and T’ai T’ai would be the best of friends and invited her to come back to visit at the earliest possible occasion, and off she went as quickly as she appeared.
One of the many highlights for me was heading into the local hill-top town of Monteleone for a cappuccino and “cornetto”, Italy’s decadent answer to the croissant. A 20 min walk but we opted to spare T’ai T’ai the roller-coaster-style pothole-filled path from our house to the local bar, and drove our fancy rented hybrid car instead. As we enjoyed the winter rays of sunshine outside the café, we were enthusiastically greeted by the local stray Labrador-style canine. Though the size of a large Bernese Mountain dog, he thinks he’s a lapdog and repeatedly tried to climb into T’ai T’ai’s lap as I tried to distract him with morsels of cornetti. (didn’t catch of photo of that, though – I was too busy trying to ensure he didn’t make her topple over backwards!)
On Christmas Eve we played a super fun Festive Trivia game, with Very Random Questions on everything from British pop music (Which is the only act to have had four Christmas Number Ones? — the Beatles!) to the number of reindeer Santa tows (it was 8, pre-Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer song in the 1940’s, at which time it was updated to 9). There was also: how many birds are in the 12-Days-of-Christmas. Hunter, annoyingly, got the answer immediately (6) – we suspect he has been spending a bit too much time at University competing at pub quizzes in the local watering holes of Edinburgh.
For the flight back to the US, we were confidently relying on a Covid test that T’ai T’ai brought with her from the US to get the required Negative Result to be able to board the flight back home. Alas, with again a 24 hour notice prior to the flight departure, we realized that the US-sourced Covid test was not valid for international travel. Eeek!
Creative Covid Scramble Fancy Footwork put into motion once again, we fortunately had a few extra test kits with us from the UK. Once confirming that they did indeed meet CDC requirements for inbound international travel, we were able to somehow finagle our way to securing the video appointment required to verify the Covid results within 30 minutes. Phew again!
Uncle Hub was awaiting his twin sister at her residence at the end of the trip, and with Sherpa-like dexterity and strength, carried her gift-laden bags to her room for – at last! – a wild-boar-free night of sleep in her own bed.
As we approach the end of the first month of 2022 here in London, we remain filled with gratitude for this lovely gift of quality time with T’ai T’ai and look forward to the next time in hopefully less Covid-full times.
Happy New Year to all, and wishing you much health and happiness for 2022.
Helen, Andrew, Hunter and Shade
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