H-D-CAL foreign exchange student describes life in Italy amid COVID-19 pandemic

Carlo Montorsi’s trip from Hampton back to Italy towards the end of March quickly put into perspective how dire the situation in his home country had gotten.

The Italy native, who spent this school year as a foreign exchange student at Hampton-Dumont-CAL High School, left Hampton on March 26 to travel back home after schools in the state of Iowa had been closed for an extended period of time. Upon arrival at the airport in Italy, Montorsi saw the mental and physical impact the COVID-19 outbreak had on the country.

“It was crazy having to go through airport security while respecting social distancing rules and wearing a mask,” he said in an email interview with the Hampton Chronicle. “It was also noticeable how everyone was very stressed about the whole situation, and so was I.”

At the time of Montorsi’s journey home, Italy was experiencing one of the worst and most documented outbreaks in the entire world, with near-ly 100,000 confirmed cases and a death rate greater than 10 percent.

On March 22, the Italian government closed all non-essential businesses and greatly restricted travel from city to city. Those restrictions added to Montorsi’s already lengthy and grueling trip home.

“The situation was still very bad, in order to travel throughout the country I had to fill in and sign three auto-certifications, which basically state why I was traveling as that is not allowed unless it's for very strict reasons,” he said.

After nearly a full day of traveling - 20 or so hours - Montorsi finally arrived to his home in the hills of Ligury, which is in the northwest corner of Italy, near the Ligurian Sea and then began self-isolating away from his family for the next 14 days.

“My family and I decided it would be best for me to isolate for the first two weeks of me getting home,” he said. “My mom, who is now 62 is at high risk and we decided it would be best if we made sure I wasn't infected and I self-quarantined in my room for two weeks.”

Montorsi’s self-isolation ended near mid-April, but due to the existing uncertainty and governmental regulations, he and his family have continued to practice social distancing. Montorsi said he has yet to leave his home since arriving on March 27.

“The situation right now in Italy is slowly getting better, our government is deciding to slowly re-open some businesses, even though we are still not allowed to leave our houses without a valid reason,” he said. “My family decided it would be better to only buy groceries once a week so we wouldn't have to leave our house as much.”

While the country is slowly getting back on track, Montorsi said individuals and families are still struggling with the effects of the closures. Unemployment and related financial uncertainty have created a burden on many.

“Most Italians are still not able to work and the government is struggling to help, everyone just hopes things will move towards normality as soon as possible because it is really hard right now to pay off rent and taxes for most families,” he said.

The transition of life as a free teenager to one of isolation and restriction, Montorsi said, was a difficult one at first but has become more routine as regulations related to the virus continue. He’s able to keep in touch with his friends and family through video messaging and passes time with video games and homework. He added that he’s even participating in online activities through H-D-CAL’s continuous learning program and speaks with friends he made during his time in Hampton.

“I am still in contact with many of my friends and I like video calling them as much as I can. I like to believe that my experience didn't end this year and it is going to continue as college comes along,” he said.

As he mentioned, Montorsi has aspirations to come back to the United States later this year and attend college. As he’s working through the process for college, he’s realized that the outbreak could potentially affect his plans to return. The United States government is currently not accepting VISA applications, which Montorsi would need to travel back and attend college.

The stress, anxiety and uncertainty regarding his future are hugely present, but Montorsi said his focus is turned towards remembering why he is working so hard towards his collegiate goals.

“All I've learnt throughout this is that we should always appreciate everything we have and not take them for granted. I was living one of my best years of my life here in the United States and it all got taken away in less than a month,” he said. “Fortunately, there is still time before I have to travel back to the United States (in August) and I still have hope to be back in the state that gave me one of the best years in my life, with all of my friends and the people I love.”