Day 11 of Phase 2 in Codiponte...
Not much has changed in Codiponte from when Phase 2 was kicked off on Monday, May 4th. The only hardship is the isolation from You and our friends, many of whom are stuck in a Holding Pattern awaiting entry into Italy to return to their homes here. All the rest is a God Send: still no airplanes flying overhead…
oh, I spoke too soon! The sound of a lone aircraft. What could it be? Hark! A Kenyan Air Force two-engine cargo plane flying from Milan Malpensa MXP to N/A, meaning Rome and then some military airport near Nairobi. Well, after delving into the headlines at BBC and The Guardian Newspaper, Africa is now up to the tips of their tribal spears with Coronavirus. And sadly, Kenya is another hot spot. All on the African continent are in need of medical supplies & equipment to battle the pandemic’s invasion into their countries.
One of my hobbies during Phase 1 & 2 of Lockdown has been to check aircraft flying LIVE above the entire globe at flightradar24.com. Previous to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sky above Codiponte was a multi-lane, multi-directional flight highway connecting Italy to the rest of Italy, Western Europe North of the Alps and the UK despite Brexit to the Near East and Eastern Africa… Egypt south to Kenya, for instance. At all hours of the day and night. I’d sit out with friends, happily sipping an excellently chilled white wine from their cellars in their lovely fattoria high above the valleys of Lunigiana and in line with the Apuane Peaks, offering stunning, unblemished skyscapes. The friends look at stars off apps, while I pull out the ol’ iPhone 11 Plus, for cryin’ out loud, click the flightradar24 app to see what’s what flying above. Just click on a yellow airplane icon to find out the from and to. I am easily carried away with fantasizing of the places on many of the aircraft’s itineraries… Istanbul, Cairo, Beirut, Port Louis, Mauritius! I’ve been to the first two. Not sure when for the others but, Beirut is tops. Since March 9th, the highway is empty but for the sporadic domestic flights flown by Alitalia to connect Milan & Rome to the country’s major centers: Napoli, Palermo, Turin, Venice, Bari, etc.; and slightly more often, Italian Air Force and Police cargo planes and Airbuses to shift personnel, supplies & equipment for the Italy’s fight in this Coronavirus pandemic. The majority of airplanes, however, flying in our skies, and are about 1/100th of the normal traffic, are cargo airplanes. Again, shifting stuff to combat the emergency. And yet, the Boeings and Airbuses are also carry general goods & foods since, the belly-cargos of the passenger aircraft are empty and parked on aprons and runways all over the place. Major hubs like London Heathrow, Vienna Schwechat, Frankfurt-am-Main, and Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok have become huge parking lots for B-777s, A-380s, etc.. And so too at many a minor airport. There is one airport out in California… Victorville, California… a famous aircraft cemetery… is now home to umpteen hundreds of furloughed though ready to fly airplanes of all sizes. Oh, well.
… and car & truck traffic has dwindled to a trickle though there are tiny Rush Hours in the early morning and late in the afternoon. The Codiponte Natives are out yet, rarely far from home or vegetable gardens and they rigorously wear masks but, NO GLOVES!!! And the church’s campanile still rings in the hours from 7:00AM to 9:00PM. Hope it stays like this.