224 days to go!
Hello everyone!
After a surprisingly, uneventful and intercontinental flight with a three hour layover in Doha, I landed in Italy and, after 11 months away, I am now on Italian soil.
Narita Airport in Tokyo was a real ghost town and it was a wake-up call to what was expecting me back at home; Brescia, my hometown, was a red zone and in a proper lockdown until the 3rd December. We are now an “orange zone” and we will turn “yellow” next week.
What impressed me the most is to see that the area where there was the circus is now designated to do drive-in Covid-19 tests...
I am now done with the two weeks quarantine and I also managed to go to Barroca to support my former trainer, Marco Cappai, competing at the Portugal Winter Tour. Being at a real eventing competition after more than a year was amazing and it was also great to enjoy the last Olympic Games qualifier event of 2020, maybe some of the riders will be in Tokyo in 2021!
Since I’ve quit riding, the only thing I am not missing is the travelling. When I was competing at international level, I hated the early mornings alarm, the solo long drives to events, the very unhealthy diet of those said trips (Redbull, coffee and junk food) and after about 10 years here I am again, co-driving across Europe for 2000km during a global pandemic!
Luckily, the effort was worthwhile as Marco was double clear in the CCI4*-L and has now two horses qualified for the Olympic Games so I really hope to see him representing Italy in Tokyo.
Italy's Marco Cappai and Uter on their way to qualifying for Tokyo at Barocca 
The cross country course was a nice test designed by Eric Winter, with some very old fashioned combinations and almost at the maximum length for a CCI4*-L.
I definitely did not miss the stress of watching live a friend riding across the country!
Being back at home again is absolutely great. I love my home town and strolling around almost in a touristic way, now that is allowed, is just precious.
Also, I am now able to meet my friends and it was just priceless to spend some time together and catch up.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to have the usual Christmas lunch with all the family reunited, but I hope to see them before going back to Tokyo.
And after a long time, you are back home and everything is the same, your house is the same, your friends are the same, your hometown is the same, your family is the same and life is good.
Stay safe everyone, I hope you’ll manage to have a Happy Christmas and fingers crossed for a 2021 better than 2020!
Carola
