Italian chef, wife stuck in Hallandale Walmart parking lot as virus halts global trek
An Italian chef and his Moldovan wife have spent the past two weeks camped out in their converted Toyota Land Cruiser in a Walmart parking lot in Hallandale, relying on wi-fi from a nearby Winn-Dixie and Wendy’s. Their quirky tale is yet another example of how the coronavirus has dramatically disrupted travelers’ plans all over the world.
Aldo Giaquinto and Vera Kozlovskaia quit their jobs, gathered their savings, and left Europe on a global expedition in 2016 with their car, “Toto,” which is equipped with a fold-out bed, mini-kitchen and a shower. Over the past three years and nine months, they traveled across five continents and 50 countries and put 124,000 miles on their car.
They drove along the Trans-Siberian Highway in Russia, through the Tanami Desert in Australia, Ruta 40 in Patagonia, and the Amazon in Brazil. They crossed the Equator, the Tropics and the Arctic circle twice. Since arriving in the United States last year, they visited 27 states, fished for salmon in Alaska, visited Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Canyon, watched a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center and swam with manatees in the Florida Keys.
They planned to spend a few weeks in South Florida and had booked a shipping container for “Toto” to be loaded on a Trans-oceanic cargo vessel to South Africa on March 27, due to arrive in early May, and they would meet the car over there after visiting friends in the Bahamas.
Instead, due to the coronavirus travel restrictions, Giaquinto, 38, and Kozlovskaia, 37, cannot fly to the Bahamas or South Africa, and their U.S. visas and car permit expire on April 14. They are spending most of the day and night in the Walmart parking lot because the public facilities on which they typically rely for daily needs — such as libraries, parks, and beaches — are now closed.
“For the past two weeks we had the worst stressful time since the beginning of our travels, as our U.S. visa is about to expire. So we are in limbo, without the possibility to stay here or to continue our travels,” said Giaquinto. “We applied for a visa extension, but have not heard back and it could take 45 days to get an answer, which is past when our visa expires.”
The couple is among millions of travelers worldwide who find themselves hampered — if not downright stuck — in bureaucratic limbo. The U.S. State Department has set up a repatriation task force that already has brought 45,000 U.S. citizens home, with another 25,000 still stuck, according to reports. And thousands of Argentines are stuck in Miami as they seek flights to go home, according to the Argentine consulate.
“We understand everything is locked down and we can’t travel, so if we have to wait until the situation of the pandemic is reversed before we continue, that’s absolutely fine for us. We understand there are much more important issues in the world that needs to be dealt with right now. But it would be nice to know that we can stay here until this situation is worked out and then we could fly to South Africa.”
They have been in touch with the Italian consul general office in Miami, but the consul has no jurisdiction over U.S. visas. Cristiano Musillo, the consul general in Miami, said Italian citizens who want to return to Italy from Miami can do so on daily flights operated through Alitalia through New York.
“At the very beginning of the crisis, we set up a task force at the consulate in charge of following decisions by the U.S. government and local authorities, while at the same time delivering in close coordination with the Italian Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support our fellow citizens in the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean,” said Musillo. “We have been working a lot to make possible our nationals got back home.”
According to the consul, 350,000 Italians visit Florida every year, “and the bond which exists between Italy and the Sunshine State is very strong.”
But the couple prefers not to go back home to Naples, Italy, right now. Their apartment is under construction and doesn’t even have windows, as work stopped due to the virus. They were not expecting to return until the end of 2021.
“Going back to Italy is not an option, especially considering the mess they are in at the moment,” Giaquinto said. “The general advice has been to stay where you are. Cars cannot circulate; people cannot even go to the supermarket to buy groceries without a certificate. I have old parents, and we could stay with them, but I am afraid after an international flight we may actually become positive to COVID-19 and God forbid transmit it to my mom or dad.
“All around the world people are advised (and in some countries even forced) to stay at home, in our case our car is “our little home on wheels” and all we ask is for the three of us to be together in the same country legally. We truly found ourselves to be in the wrong place at the worst time.”
He stressed that they don’t want the visa extension to be tourists in the United States, merely to have time to organize their safe departure to South Africa as soon as travel restrictions are reversed.
“Our trip is self-funded, the result of years of hard work and savings. We live a simple but rewarding life,” he said. “But what started as a dream has recently turned into a nightmare.”
El Nuevo Herald writer Lautaro Grinspan contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.