‘Yes, it’s a challenge – but so was going decimal’
Fiona Duncan overcomes her anxieties to brave the new world of travel for the first time. Her verdict? ‘It’s well worth it!’
‘The pretty city feels tranquil by day, lively at night and completely safe’
I haven’t been abroad since the start of the pandemic. For an inveterate traveller and a travel writer, that’s quite a long time. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to start travelling again but it all seemed so complicated and fraught with difficulty. Like many people, I had plenty of travel plans for when things went back to normal, but “normal” never seemed to come.
From Monday, the test I had to take before returning home will no longer be required, removing one barrier. But although the planned move in late October to require only lateral flow tests, as opposed to PCR, will save money, it will not really save you any admin. Coupled with the fact that many countries require tests to enter them, if you want to get back to travelling abroad then overcoming this predominantly psychological hurdle is well worth a bit of your time.
Because as this summer wore on, I started to pine. I took part in a podcast in which I was asked what was at the top of my bucket list. There are many candidates but I found myself citing Ravenna and its famous mosaics and when, a few days later, The Daily Telegraph asked me if I would like to travel somewhere to help inspire confidence in others, the moment felt right. As of August 31, Italy had lifted its requirement for those arriving from the UK to quarantine for five days; I was off. Here’s my pandemic travel diary, detailing what you’ll need for travel in the next month, when Europe is looking gloriously autumnal.
DAY ONE
I book a hotel and my flights to Bologna, the most convenient airport for Ravenna. All this is easy for me – I’m
very used to researching and booking flights and hotels online.
Now for the bit I have never done before: equipping myself with everything I need for travel in Covid times, including the particular requirements of Italy, as each country has its own rules. I drop in on my friend Tim and find him exhausted after a morning spent preparing for a trip to Greece.
“My sense of the whole process,” he warns me, “is that it is pretty impenetrable. The government website keeps referring you to other links within itself, so it is easy to lose your place and to forget where you started. Nothing feels ‘joined up’.”
DAY TWO
I can only concur. Even with the benefit of tips and links from Tim, I manage to spend most of the morning rummaging on the internet, at first dazed and confused, gradually becoming clearer and more confident. My friends Sarah and Paul call en route to Heathrow, also bound for Italy. “What are you fussing about?” they ask, somewhat crushingly. “Just remember that for Italy you have to present a negative Covid test.”
By lunchtime, I emerge, armed with the following.
For travel to Italy:
My NHS Covid pass, printed out as well as on the NHS app
A paid-for antigen (lateral flow) “fit to fly” test from an approved provider to take within 48 hours of arriving in Italy, ordered online and sent to me in the post
A completed and approved passenger locator form generated by the Italian government. This requires delving into “Manage My Booking” on BA’s website to find my flight seat number
For returning to the UK:
My NHS Covid pass
The URL of the UK Government’s passenger locator form, ready to complete online up to 48 hours before arriving home
A day-two test kit (£57), bought online and delivered by courier. This stays at home to await my return, but its reference number must be kept with me, to be entered on the UK passenger locator form. As mentioned, from late October this can hopefully be a lateral flow instead of PCR test, but you will still need to arrange this privately; NHS tests cannot be used. I had to take a test two days before I flew back, but again as mentioned, this will no longer be required as of Monday
Sarah and Paul call from Heathrow. They had missed their flight because their lateral flow tests were obtained from the NHS and were not acceptable. “Oh, dear, I could have told you that,” I reply, trying and failing not to crow.
DAY THREE
Following instructions, I take the test sent to me in the post. It is negative, and the lab emails me a certificate.
DAY FOUR
I receive an email from BA asking me to upload this certificate, my Covid pass and my completed passenger locator form. BA then allows me to go ahead and check in online for my flight and print the boarding pass.
DAY FIVE
A breeze. Heathrow is pleasantly busy, but not uncomfortable. The plane is half full, with spare seats between passengers. I find wearing my mask on the aircraft more comfortable than elsewhere as plenty of air is circulating. At passport control, everyone is asked to show their passenger locator forms.
DAYS FIVE TO SEVEN Ravenna! The pretty city of bicycles feels tranquil by day, lively at night and completely safe (masks are worn everywhere indoors and Covid passes are required to enter museums and restaurants). I am plunged into an earthly paradise: the array of astonishing late Roman and Byzantine mosaics adorning Ravenna’s eight Unesco-listed churches and mausoleums are at once energising, uplifting and deeply moving. No artwork I have ever seen has the stop-in-tracks effect on me of the tapestry-like glass mosaics inside the unassuming Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and Basilica of San Vitale. I even have a go at making them myself, in one of the city’s several mosaic workshops. It’s the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante and each evening in Ravenna, a member of the public reads a passage from the Divine Comedy outside his tomb, watched by rapt onlookers.
Food, as always in Italy, is a highlight, especially regional specialities such as piadina (flatbread) with squacquerone cheese and rocket and cappelletti con il ragù at the venerable wine bar Ca’ de Vèn. On my last day, I soak up the sun on the nearby beach and visit Sant’Apollinare in Classe, where, in a church of surpassing clarity, proportion and beauty, lambs gambol in a verdant mosaic landscape, all is harmony and Covid seems a distant memory.
DAY SIX
I fill in my UK passenger locator form and receive the QR code by way of approval. This time, only airport checkin is offered.
DAY SEVEN
Flying home, on a sparsely populated plane, is another calm and pleasurable experience. At check-in I present my documents, including Covid pass and locator form. No problems at Heathrow’s passport control.
DAY 10
Having sent off my day-two PCR test, I receive the results, negative. All done. Yes, my first time abroad was something of a challenge to begin with, but so was decimal currency and airport security when they first came in. Next time I travel, it will be a doddle. I can’t wait.
British Airways (ba.com) offers return flights to Ravenna from London Heathrow from £120. Hotel La Reunion (0039 0544 212949; lareunion.it) offers doubles from £76 including breakfast. For more information and to book tours, visit emiliaromagnaturismo.it and turismo.ra.it