Daily Banking News
$42.39
-0.38%
$164.24
-0.07%
$60.78
+0.07%
$32.38
+1.31%
$260.02
+0.21%
$372.02
+0.18%
$78.71
-0.06%
$103.99
-0.51%
$76.53
+1.19%
$2.81
-0.71%
$20.46
+0.34%
$72.10
+0.28%
$67.30
+0.42%

Italy Is Reopening to Travelers—Here’s Everything You Need to Know


An Italy-based writer on what travelers need to know and whether Italy really is ready to relax its borders.

share this article

flipboard

Italy is officially open to all leisure travelers, following a series of announcements that mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic-related shutdown in one of Europe’s most popular destinations.

Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio initially took to Facebook on May 8, saying that “tourism is a key part of Italy getting back to normal,” and adding that the government’s objective is “to reopen to visitors from foreign countries which have reached a high rate of vaccination.”

The government has long been hinting at relaxing restrictions from mid-May for Europeans and June for some long-haul visitors, including those from the United States. And although the lack of detail made most people skeptical it would ever happen, on May 14 they announced that quarantine will be waived for travelers testing negative from the U.K., Israel, and Europe.

And then, the bombshell. Late at night Italian time on the same day, they announced that Delta and Alitalia’s “COVID-tested flights” from New York and Atlanta to Rome and Milan—for which passengers must test negative 48 hours before boarding, then again at the airport, and a third time on arrival—will be opened up to all American passengers from May 16. Until now, they’ve been for those traveling for essential reasons only.

This means that any American citizen may now travel to Italy, even on vacation, for the first time in over a year, if they take one of these flights and test negative twice before departure and then on arrival. In his Facebook post, Di Maio had said they were considering this option for June. The eagerness to beat Europe’s other countries opening up clearly got the better of them.

Delta announced May 14 that it will be launching COVID-tested flights from New York (JFK) to Venice July 2, plus Atlanta to Venice and Boston to Rome August 5, in conjunction with partner Alitalia.

Other airlines have yet to confirm whether they’ll be running similar flights, but the Italian government issued a decree late Friday night saying that flights would be allowed from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York (JFK), Newark, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. They must arrive at either Rome (Fiumicino), Milan (Malpensa), Naples, or Venice. It did not specify any airlines by name, so presumably there’s scope for others to follow suit.

What’s the situation there? Is it ethical to visit right now?

Everyone remembers the news coming out of Italy in March 2020: people dying at what, back then, seemed like an astonishing rate, doctors themselves succumbing to this horrifying new disease. The pandemic hit Italy hard—after the U.K., it holds the grim record for the most dead in Europe.

And although in summer 2020 it looked like Italy had beaten the virus—case numbers stayed low, even though they were rising sharply around Europe—the country plunged into a brutal second wave when winter hit.

Most of us in the country have spent most of 2021 under some form of lockdown, again (current restrictions are designated by region). And although rates are now falling, and most regions are rated “yellow,” at the back of our minds we have the example of Sardinia, which was designated Italy’s first white region—with close to no transmission—at the end of February; it rocketed to red within just three weeks.

Article continues below advertisement

All that said, you won’t find things too muted, if you come. Tourism represents 13 percent of Italy’s GDP—far more in cities like Venice, which have been brought to their knees by the pandemic. And most people are happy at the idea of having visitors back.

“We’re all waiting for the government to give us free rein to live normal life again, and bring our culture to the table,” says Massimiliano Bovo, who runs Venice’s historical Gatto Nero



Read More: Italy Is Reopening to Travelers—Here’s Everything You Need to Know

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Get more stuff like this
in your inbox

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.