I waited two years for Bryan Peterson to offer a photography workshop to Tuscany. As soon as I registered, I started planning and organizing, even though it was a year away. Airfare, hotels, museum tickets, winery tours . . . all booked. For this trip of a lifetime, my husband, my sister and her husband, and my husband’s high school friends all decided to join the party. Nobody knew that Bryan was terminally ill. He died months before the workshop but it would proceed on schedule with a substitute instructor.

I flew to Rome on my own, allowing for a few days to acclimate. I have had chronic migraines since I was a baby and knew the stress of travel would make me vulnerable. Being alone in a strange city with a foreign language doesn’t trouble me as long as I have a camera around my neck.

My sister messaged me that I had been exposed to Covid the week before I left for Europe. I counted the days since exposure and calculated that I would be past the incubation period by the time I met up with the photography group in Florence. Spent my days wandering the streets of Rome doing street photography. Took the train to Florence. Hot, crowded, rather miserable. But . . . Italy!

We embarked on the Tuscan photography workshop and I didn’t feel a bit sick. Whew! A day shooting in Florence before a road trip to Tuscany. In order to capture sunrise and sunset Golden Hours in the summer, photographers get up extremely early and go to bed extremely late. Little sleep and irregular meals are major triggers for migraneurs, so I wasn’t surprised when my body rebelled. I always have a stock of medicines that provide some limited relief, but they wane by Day 3 of a migraine. So, I believed I just needed to tough it out until the end of the tour and take a recovery day to shake off the dregs of the migraine. Upon dropoff after the tour ended, I began to wonder if my symptoms weren’t a bit more than a typical migraine. I bought a Covid test at a nearby pharmacy. DAMN. POSITIVE. And I’d been travelling in a van for four days with six other people! And I was scheduled to meet up with my husband, sister, and friends and begin the tourist portion of my vacation of a lifetime.

At this point in the journey I was in extreme distress. High fever, excruciating headache, body aches, sore throat, cough, extreme fatigue, diarrhea, etc. I needed to manage my travel details but I had significant brain fog. I had a hotel room for Night One. But what about Night Two, Three, Four . . .? So tired. Everything hurt. But I had to check out of my room because it was booked for Night Two. Argh. So many details to manage.

In summary, we spent over $1500 in costs for additional hotel rooms so I could isolate. I left museum tickets unused. I sat in hotel rooms rather than visit the Duomo, David, Uffizi, Pitti Palace. I missed the wine tour trip to San Gimignano. Italian Cuisine? Oh well, I lost my sense of taste anyway. I was too sick to feel cheated.

I tested for Covid every two days. By the last day prior to departure I tested negative. Although I was no longer contagious, I still felt quite poorly. At least I could proceed with travel home. I was traveling solo and it was quite hot, crowded, and chaotic. Came close to fainting more than once. Traveling while sick is arduous and uncomfortable with a mask in 90 degree weather. Many thanks to my compatriots for aiding me when I wasn’t traveling solo.

I am editing my photos and will post at barbaraharriott.smugmug.com when complete. I hope you will enjoy viewing the images as much as I enjoyed capturing them.