Today, we fly. My first news this morning was an email from the Vatican:

Dear Visitors to the Necropolis of Saint Peter,

Following the directives of the Health Department of Vatican City State, and taking into account the development of the epidemic, the decision has been made to suspend visits to the Necropolis of Saint Peter starting Monday, March 9, 2020, until the foreseeable future.

I'd hoped they might hold off for another day or two, so we could get our tour in, but it's not to be.

My second piece of news was courtesy of this article in the New York Times:

PRAGUE — Thousands of Czechs returning from holidays in Italy will have to go into quarantine for two weeks or face fines as part of efforts to curb the coronavirus, health officials said on Friday. […] "We clearly told our people not to travel to Italy and we clearly said that everyone who is returning from Italy will go into quarantine, under the law," Prime Minister Andrej Babis told a news conference.

My first thought: what a strangely reversed moment from The Sound of Music this is: travelers hoping to make it to the Austrian border, not to get out of Austria, but to get in.

I'm putting down my thoughts here because I have a feeling it'll be a blur by the time we get home, and I'm writing to remind myself that our first go / no-go call of the flight day came before we even got out of bed. I'm on the phone at the moment waiting to confirm one last time that the travel insurance we bought back in February covers us in the way we thought, and then … there's nothing else to do but fly with our fingers crossed.

Here's to washing our hands.