Several people have told me that the timing of our Italy & Paris trip was good. If we had gone earlier, there were still many COVID restrictions, and we would have needed to get a PCR test before coming back to the US. Any later, then we would have been caught in the July heat wave, and the recent spike in COVID cases due to the BA.5 variant. Here is the chart of new cases for Campania, where Sorrento and the Almafi Coast are located.
I picked Campania since that was our last destination in Italy, but the pattern for the entire country is similar. The large spike due to OG Omicron is about twice the BA.5 spike in July. Again, we thought we missed the BA.2 spike in cases but walked into the most virulent variant to date.
Above is the temperature in Europe a month after our trip. It was in the mid-to-high 80’s Fahrenheit most days. This maps shows mid-to-upper 90’s, which is a huge difference if you are walking around outside. I cannot imagine wearing a KN95/PPF2 mask in 100 °F weather.
Life with chronic diseases 