Instead of slaying dragons, Emily Garnier started bingeing them. Saddled with a week of stay-at-home orders, she bought a ukulele and taught herself to strum “Party Favor” by Billie Eilish. Then Garnier and her roommate decided to speed-watch HBO’s “Game of Thrones” from Season 1 onward.
“Neither of us had seen it before,” the former D’Evelyn High School and Mines soccer alum said of the fantasy phenomenon. “And then we had two friends from England that were stuck in Florence that hadn’t seen it, so we’d watch it at the same time as them.
“Just don’t let yourself be isolated. Even though you have to stay home, you can still reach out through technology. You don’t have to be alone, even though you have to physically separate.”
Garnier saw this coming. All of it. Three weeks ago, she was locked down at her apartment in the little town of Empoli, Italy, caught in the middle of a nationwide stay-at-home edict.
On March 12, after a week of isolation, she made it back home to her parents’ place in Littleton. Only to watch the same coronavirus concerns, and cases, start sweeping across the Front Range.
Once Denver mayor Michael Hancock on Monday ordered locals to close up shop, it felt like déjà vu all over again.
“It’s strange,” said Garnier, a defender with the Empoli FC professional women’s club. “A lot of what’s happening in the U.S. is what I was seeing (there). It’s kind of weird.
“It’s like I’m doing it twice. It’s a little unfortunate, but I guess it’s a little less shocking the second time around.”
On the upside, Garnier says she’s shown no symptoms of the virus. Neither have any of her teammates, now scattered around the globe. She’s remained in self-quarantine at her parents’ home since her return, just to stay on the safe side.
On the downside, buckle up. Because here’s what’s probably coming, based on what she experienced just a few weeks ago in central Italy:
• Grocery and department stores allowing patrons, but only so many at a time — and one-in and one-out, for example, in smaller shops.
• And if you’ve got to be out and about, you might need to bring along paperwork that justifies clear passage.
“You also had to have information (on you) as to where you live,” Garnier said. “So if you’re in Empoli and they find you in Florence, (police would) be like, ‘What are you doing here? Go home. Get inside. Don’t spread this.’”
Since January 2019, Garnier has been a defender for Empoli FC, based in Empoli, a town of roughly 48,000 roughly 30 minutes west of Florence and 45 minutes east of Pisa. The women’s side plays in Serie A, the highest professional tier of Italian soccer, a partner club to the men in Serie B.
If you think trying to get straight dope on COVID-19 is tricky here, try being at a place where the ground rules are piped out in a different language entirely. Once the lockdown started there, Empoli FC sent Garnier and her teammates “self-declaration” forms to fill out and take with them in case authorities questioned where they were going and why.
“They were in total lockdown and I was like, ‘What does this mean?’ I don’t know if anybody knew what was really happening,” she said. “Italy’s a lot smaller than the U.S. So I don’t know — it’s hard to compare to Colorado.
“It’s very similar to what Italy was (at the start of the month). We’re not all the way to where Italy was when I left. But we’re pretty close.”
And getting closer all the time. Despite a nationwide lockdown that’s slated to run through April 3, Italy had reported 63,927 confirmed coronavirus cases and 6,077 deaths from the disease as of Monday
“I’ve heard some of the horror stories,” Garnier said. “You’re in the hospital and people can’t come in and see you. And they’re overcrowded. It really breaks my heart to hear that stuff.
“That’s why you want to do your part. I didn’t want to get anyone sick to cause horror stories to happen to other people. We need to be responsible. Especially my generation. I’ve seen some pretty irresponsible stuff.”
Lookin’ at you, Sarasota.
Garnier wanted to stay in Empoli, to ride it out. But for one, it was clear pretty quickly that the rest of the season was going to be suspended indefinitely. For another, there are only eight seasons of GOT out there to keep you from bouncing off the dang walls.
“They kept losing more things,” Garnier said of Italy. “The rules were getting stricter, and you had to have a form to go outside. … I definitely feel more emotionally settled at home, too. A sense of safety.”
A sense of familiarity.
Buckle up.
“I don’t think we should panic,” Garnier said. “I think we’re going to be OK.
“I guess the scary part in all of it is not really knowing when it will happen or when it will be over. Just, in general, in my life, I try to stay optimistic with things. That’s what I’m going to do with this as well. Take each day as it comes and deal with restrictions and hope for (the best). I think, as much as it (stinks), people understand that this is the best thing to do right now.”
