Man ‘storms off on 280-mile walk to “calm down” after row with wife – and then gets FINED for breaking Covid rules’
A MAN who “stormed off on a 280-mile walk to ‘calm down’ after an argument with his wife got fined by police for breaking Covid rules”.
The unnamed 48-year-old reportedly hiked for a week to compose himself, travelling from the northern city of Como to Fano, a city 280 miles south on the Adriatic coast.
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The man was spotted at 2am by police who were carrying out roadside checks in compliance with the covid curfew that was in place.
Officers noticed the man was limping and immediately stopped him and took him to the nearest station.
According to local reports, the officers did not believe the man had walked so far but after checking his name they found that his wife had reported his missing a week earlier.
The 48-year-old was reported as being cold and tired but appeared lucid although he admitted that he had not realised how far he had travelled on his walk.
“I’m fine, just a little tired,” he told the officers, reported the local newspaper in Fano, Il Resto del Carlino.
The man was then forced to pay a €400 fine for breaking the Covid overnight curfew.
Italy has imposed a nationwide curfew that begins at 10pm and ends at 5pm in a bid to clamp down on the second wave of coronavirus.
The man said he had been given food by strangers during his hike which roughly averaged about 40 miles a day.
His wife came to collect him at the station in Fano where she confirmed that he had stormed out of their home in Como a week prior and had not been at home since.
There were 18,846 new infections as of today, health bosses have said.
The previous record number of deaths registered in a single day was 921 on March 27, at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic.
The first Western country hit by the virus, Italy has seen 60,078 coronavirus-related fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain’s.
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It has also registered 1.74million cases to date.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by around 1,000 per day.
Intensive care occupancy was spiking by about 100 daily.