From Sunday 16 May, Italian citizens and foreign tourists will be able to return to travel within the European Union, the Schengen area and in Great Britain and Israel without having to respect the quarantine upon entry into Italy.
This is established by an order by the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza: the provision cancels the five-day quarantine upon return or entry into Italy.
However, the obligation to present a double negative swab remains: it must be done 48 hours before entering Italy, in the country where you are or have gone.
In this regard, it should be specified that both the molecular Pcr and the rapid antigenic are valid. The swab must then be repeated once you arrive in Italy.
It is very likely that in June the government will consider the possibility of extending the measure to the G7 countries, including the United States and Japan.
It is good to remember that before leaving Italy you must check the rules of the country where you have decided to spend your holidays.
Useful, in this sense, is the site “Viaggiare Safely” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Furthermore, when the national green pass comes into force first, and the European green pass, then, the vaccination certificate will be sufficient to move around, as an alternative to the swab or recovery.
The stop to the quarantine opens the doors to 26.6 million European, American and Japanese tourists who came on vacation to Italy in the last summer before the pandemic.
It emerges from the Coldiretti analysis on the arrivals of citizens from the European Union, Great Britain, USA, Canada and Japan in the period from July to September in 2019 according to Bank of Italy.
According to Coldiretti, the resumption of summer tourism by foreigners from these countries is worth 13 billion in the summer for accommodation, food, transport, entertainment, shopping and souvenirs.
The return of vacationers from abroad to Italy is strategic for tourist hospitality in the most popular destinations also because – underlines Coldiretti – visitors from foreign countries traditionally have a high spending capacity.
Above all, the cities of art, which are the historical destinations of tourism from abroad, will be favored, but also the over 24 thousand national farmhouses where foreigners in some regions according to Campagna Amica traditionally represent more than half of the guests.
It is important that, with the advancement of the vaccination campaign and the opening of the borders with the stop to quarantine, the curfew time is also moved and the restaurant activities within the premises reopened, especially after the lifting of the state of emergency in Spain, Italy’s main competitor among tourist destinations.
In fact, food – concludes Coldiretti – has become the main item of the budget of families on holiday in Italy with about one third of the expenditure of Italians and foreigners destined for the table to eat meals in restaurants, pizzerias, trattorias or farmhouses, but also for food street food or food and wine specialties.
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