In one of the more bizarre COVID-inspired “expeditions”, an Italian man has walked 450km to cool down after an argument with his wife. He was then fined $485 for staying out past curfew during the quarantine.
The unnamed 48-year-old man left his home in Como, in northern Italy, and walked nearly halfway down the boot to Fano, on the Adriatic coast. He averaged about 60km a day and finished his blowing-off-steam trek in about a week. Strangers along the way gave him food and water.
Police in Fano stopped the man at 2am, because he was breaking curfew, which began at 10pm. “I walked all the way,” he told them, “I didn’t use any vehicle.” He admitted that he was a little tired and didn’t realize that he had walked that far.
The man’s wife had filed a missing person report with the police a week earlier. She was allowed to drive down to Fano to pick him up. At the same time, she picked up the fine for his quarantine transgression.
Source: Paramount
Social media in Italy dubbed the man Forrest Gump, after the Tom Hanks character in the 1994 film who ran thousands of kilometres to clear his head.
“I’d really like to know what their fight was about,” tweeted one.
The pandemic has prompted several strange, long-distance ventures, as people struggle with everything from stir-craziness to limited transportation. In July, a student cycled for 48 days and 3,500km from Scotland home to Greece after flights were canceled.
