Are you planning to travel to Italy for leisure or business? First, you might need few tips on how to travel during this pandemic. Second, here is an update on the situation in Italy.
Italy in January 2021
If you are not skilled with Italian geography, it is time to learn how Italy is organized. The reason? Italy has different types of lockdown depending on the region and its contagion rate. The country is divided by colours: we now have red, orange and yellow regions. Before trying to explain the differences between these colours, let’s discover what are the Italian regions. I’m putting my teacher glasses on. Are you ready?
The Italian regions.
Italy is dived in 20 regions: 18 spread along the boot and two islands plunged in the Mediterranean sea. There was a time when we a third big island, Corsica, but we sold it to France. It seems we could claim it back, but I think we’d rather focus on having back all the pieces of art stole by Napoleon and still kept at the Louvre (Macron, can you read me?).
Today, the Italian regions, from North to South are:
Valle d’Aosta
Piemonte/Piedmont
Liguria
Lombardia/Lombardy
Veneto
Friuli Venezia Giulia
Trentino-Alto Adige
Emilia Romagna
Toscana/Tuscany
Lazio
Marche
Umbria
Molise (also known as Molisn’t as nobody knows exaclty where it is 😉 )
Abbruzzo
Puglia/Apulia
Calabria
Sicilia/Sicily
Sardegna/Sardinia
As you can se, some names have the English translation. Others do not.
Red, Orange or yellow?
The Italian government updates and communicates if a region is red, orange or yellow according to the spread of Covid-19 infections. I strongly recommend to check the Foreign Affairs website to check the colour of the region you need to reach. Once you know it, you have to understand what you can do and what you can not.
Red
As you can imagine a red region is the one with more restrictions. In a red region you cannot move from the municipality you are residing. You can exit your municipality only for working reasons. Shops are closed. Supermarkets and shops that sell food and first need goods can be open. In this casem you can also move in another municipality if you need to buy something that you can not find in yours or if it costs less.
You cannot eat in a restaurant but you can take food away. Take away is allowed from 5 am to 10 pm.
Museums, art galleries, theatres and cinemas are closed, fairs and events are suspended.
You can take a walk or run near your home. You cannot meet friends.
In oder words, red zone means: sofa, tv, food and sleep.
Orange
If the region is orange, bar and restaurants are still closed. Of course it is possible to take food home as in the red zone. You cannot exit the municipality you are staying in, but you can visit few friends, once a day.
Shops are open during the week but museums, theatres and cinemas remain closed.
You can move inside the region to meet parents and have a long walk. Basically, it is a less restricted red zone.
Yellow
If the region is yellow, it is possible to move and to reach another region, provided it is yellow too.
Restaurants are open and you can eat there at midday, but for the evening you can only take your food home. Shops and supermarkets are open but museums, theatres and cinemas remain closed.
In general
You can always move for business reasons, but in case of controls you must provide details. You must also print and fill this form in case of controls. In case you can not print it, the police should provide you with one but I doubt they can have a copy in English. I suggest you to try to print it, maybe in the hotel where you stay or at newsagents or tobacconists where they might have a printer and offer this service.
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