Disagreements— which can quickly escalate to fights—are a common sight among couples anywhere, but what about when you have to pay a hefty fine to the law enforcers just to get over the petty squabble that you have had at home.
An unfortunate situation, similar to the above, happened with a man in Italy this week when he was slapped with 400 euros (about USD485) by the authorities for leaving his home during a week-long travel restriction to cool himself off following a heated argument with his wife.
A 48-year-old unnamed Italian man hiked for a week, from Cumo, in the far north of Italy on the Swiss border, and travelled 280 miles south to Fano, a small town on the Adriatic coast, in an attempt to soothe his anger after he had fallen out with his partner.
Side-effects of lockdown
At first, the police officers who picked up the man at 2 a.m. (local time) for breaching Italy's lockdown curfew rules did not believe he could have walked so far, but after checking his name found his wife had indeed reported him as missing back in Como a week earlier.
Reports in the Italian media state the man was cold and tired, but appeared lucid, although he admitted he had not realised quite how far he had gone during his long walk to clear his head.
The man said he had been given food by strangers during his epic hike, during which he had averaged about 40 miles a day.
"I'm fine, just a little tired," he told the officers, reported the local newspaper in Fano, Il Resto del Carlino.
After he wife came to collect him, she confirmed he had indeed stormed out of their home in Como after a row a week ago and had not been seen since.
However, as well as picking up her husband's overnight hotel bill in Fano, she was also told to pay the €400 fine he had been given by police for breaching the Covid overnight curfew.
The man also told the press that, during his journey, strangers offered him food and drinks.
Covid surge in Italy
Italy became Europe's first coronavirus hotspot earlier this year after cases started to emerge in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto in February.
It imposed the first lockdown outside of China after the virus spread throughout the country and across the continent.
Summer saw a lull in infections in Italy, as elsewhere, before the second wave of coronavirus infections took hold.
Now, daily numbers of infections remain high, and last week it reported a record-high number of daily deaths. Here's a snapshot of what's going on in Italy at the moment.
The country currently has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections in Europe after France, with 1,728,878 confirmed cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Over 60,000 people have died from the disease in the country.
In view of the above situation, the government has imposed a nationwide curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in an effort to clamp down on its second wave of coronavirus.
Inside areas designated red zones, where the virus is most prevalent, Italians are only permitted to walk or bike rides outside if they stay near their homes, although no specific distance has given in the regulations.
