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Reader question: What are the rules on travel to Italy from EU countries right now?

After Italy launched its version of the EU-wide digital ‘green pass’ on June 17th, there has been confusion about what changes for people travelling to Italy from other European countries.

Published: 23 June 2021 18:30 CEST

Reader question: What are the rules on travel to Italy from EU countries right now?

Photo: Koen van Weel/ANP/AFP

Question: I live in a European country which has not yet released its version of the EU ‘green pass’, and I’m travelling to Italy soon. Am I allowed to enter the country at the moment? What are the requirements?

The health pass will be used to facilitate quarantine-free travel throughout the EU from July 1st, with certificates issued in any member state valid throughout the rest of the bloc, the European Commission says.

But some people planning to travel to Italy soon have said they are unsure about which rules apply until July 1st.

EXPLAINED: What is Italy’s digital ‘green pass’ used for and how do you get it?

Not all countries in Europe have yet made their own version of the digital certificate available to residents.

As the map below shows, as of Wednesday most European member states have now begun issuing the pass but some, including Sweden and Belgium, are not quite there yet.

Map: European Commission

Italy launched its version of the pass on June 17th, allowing eligible people living in Italy to start downloading the digital health certificate immediately via an official website or app.

The Italian pass is designed for residents of Italy who were vaccinated, tested or recovered from Covid-19 here.

That means that residents of other EU countries planning to visit Italy should claim a certificate from their own country, which will be accepted in Italy.

READ ALSO: Who can travel to Italy right now?

But Italy has not started to require the green pass for international travel just yet.

The rules on entering Italy won’t change until July 1st, when the European-wide health pass system should become fully operational.

By then, all member states are expected to be issuing their own version of the certificate for use throughout the bloc.

Between June 17th and July 1st, during what Italy’s health ministry has called the ‘implementation phase’, travellers must continue to follow the existing rules on travel to Italy from their country.

This may include quarantine and more than one test depending on which country you are travelling from. All arrivals currently need to complete a passenger locator form, available online here.

It is still possible to enter Italy for any reason from other EU countries. All arrivals currently need to show a negative PCR or antigenic test result to enter Italy – regardless of vaccination status.

Reader question: Can I use a foreign vaccination certificate to access Italy’s ‘green pass’?

Unlike some EU member states, Italy is not currently making any exceptions to its rules for those who are fully vaccinated.

Once the green pass scheme comes into operation on July 1st, however, those who are vaccinated will then be able to enter the country without needing to also show a negative test result.

Rules within the country, such as those on social distancing and masks, continue to apply to those who are vaccinated.

How do I get the ‘green pass’ for travel to Italy?

Any EU country’s version of the green pass will be valid for entry into Italy from July 1st.

The exact requirements for obtaining a green pass however vary depending on which country you are in.

For example, some countries only issue the certificate to those who have been fully immunised with either both required vaccine doses or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Italy’s own health certificate is valid from 15 days after the first dose.

Because of differences in some rules between countries, the Italian health ministry advises people to check the requirements before their trip using the Re-open EU website.

If you’re travelling to or from a country outside Europe, the rules are more uncertain.

It is not yet clear if or how the EU will recognise vaccination certificates from outside the bloc, such as from the US or UK, or vice versa.

Find further information about accessing Italy’s ‘green pass’ in a separate article here.

For more information about the EU-wide health pass scheme, see the European Commission’s website.

See more on the current coronavirus situation and health measures in Italy on the Health Ministry’s website (in English).

Member comments

ymrandall54 - 25 June 2021 at 13:16 CEST

Has anyone from the UK driven to Italy since the new quarantine rules applied on the 21st June? We are waiting to leave but we would like to see what others have experienced.
1. Roger B - 28 June 2021 at 14:11 CEST
  
  I flew in from Stanstead on the 11th. My reply is to give you confidence to get driving.
  1. This site is reporting what it hears but it does not seem to gather info from real travelers’ and does not make it easy to contribute. Probably my lack of skill….
  
  2. This is Italy and it has its own “administrative process” still based on paper. The European dPLF is meaningless here. One has to fill in a form at the entry point. The ones at Malpensa airport are English one side and Italian the other so that is step up from 12 months ago, they have a QR code too but are manually filed somewhere! So get your dPLF for completeness. At the border the officer acknowledge I had an Antigen test but just wanted to get hold of my Italian paper locator form. I also had to pass through the digital passport scan station first…. I could scan a copy of the locator form for you because as it is, as usual, only 85% obvious what to write when under pressure in the airport environment.
  So message to The Local why do you not have a link to it?
  
  3. The Authorities are super welcoming as always but few are willing to use English still (despite obviously knowing it). So this made the following process difficult. Once you are settled and unpacked, and if not in a hotel, one has to register with the central health authorities in your Region by phone. That took me 3 days of waiting on the phone, being hung up on being told to use another number, etc. Even my Italian friend who eventually made a successful call for me had trouble passing over the info. All very friendly but seems the receptionists are still learning the ropes. However next day I received a very relaxed call from a Doctor in the Authorities who conversed as if English was his first language, checked my status, advised me to register with a local doctor for emergencies ( I have never gotten round to it despite being some years here) and requested I email a copy of my Antigen test to him (final someone wanted it!).
  
  4. I am going to drive back and forth instead of flying. I have in the past and often the Italian border posts were unmanned. Now with Brexit our UK passports must be stamped in and out of “The EU” so make sure you get a stamp at the European entry/exit Port….
  1. Roger B - 28 June 2021 at 14:25 CEST
    
    One more nugget. I used breathassured.com for my Antigen test. Benefit is they maximises your 48 hour period. Takes 20 minutes on a video call, Teams or Zoom and you have your certificate via email ready to travel essentially immediately.
    Buy a 2 pack (or 5 pack) and you have a return to UK Antigen test kit with you ready to complete via video call before you leave Italy.
    
    They also do the 2 and 8 day test kits. I will order mine when I know my my arrival date back in the UK i.e. will order the appropriate test kit at the time. Fingers crossed Italy is in the green zone or better!
freddiehall2000 - 29 June 2021 at 20:25 CEST

Freddie H.
As a US citizen living in the UK with a US passport and having been fully vaccinated, does anyone know what the travel requirements would be for driving to France? Would one have to quarantine?

Become a Member to leave a comment.

How Italy has changed in two years of the Covid-19 pandemic

It may be hard to believe, but two full years have now passed since Italy began to lock down towns in northern Italy after Europe’s first known outbreaks of coronavirus were confirmed.

By early March 2020, Italy had become the first Western country to declare a nationwide lockdown.

In the intervening two years, Italy has been through a lot – and we think it’s fair to say that the country will never be quite the same again.

Not all of the changes are negative, however.

As we look ahead to the gradual easing of Italy’s remaining restrictions and the return of a more normal life in the coming weeks and months, here’s a look at some of the ways in which Italian culture and society has changed.

Less kissing, more personal space

Is the famous Italian two-kiss greeting gone for good?

While you might still give a close friend or a family member a little peck on the cheek, gone are the days where you’d stand in a circle knocking jowls with people you’d met just moments before.

In fact, the concept of personal space in general is now better understood and more widely practiced in Italy than it ever was in the past – whether it concerns touching between acquaintances, or crowding at the post office.

That’s not to say people are now keeping their distance at all times. But generally speaking, in public spaces most people are still keen to avoid pressing up against one another even in situations where social distancing is no longer really monitored.

This means ticketing systems have in many areas replaced queues – and where they do exist, lines are far more likely to be respected, with healthy gaps maintained between the people forming them.

A sign reminds people to observe distancing measures at a cinema in Rome – The sight of people forming an orderly, distanced queue is no longer unusual in Italy. Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP

This new awareness of and respect for personal space will be a striking difference for anyone returning to Italy for the first time since the pandemic began.

If you weren’t a fan of touchy-feely Italian behaviour before, no doubt this will come as a relief – while those who enjoyed these affectionate customs may find this a sad development.

Life in Italy is becoming (a bit) more digital.

We wouldn’t go as far as to describe it as a digital revolution, but the pandemic has certainly accelerated Italy’s adoption of online processes.

This is still Italy we’re talking about, and digital is by no means king – but it’s made some noticeable strides in the last two years.

If you need a document from your comune, or town hall, you can now in most cases access it for free online rather than having to block out an entire afternoon to go in person to collect a copy.

People are also much more amenable to the idea of checking – and answering – emails than was the case pre-pandemic, when nothing less than a phone call (ideally followed up by an in-person meeting) would get you any attention.

Similarly, more information is also now made available online, whereas before you may have been expected to go to an office in person to get even the most mundane questions answered.

You’re also more likely now to be offered the option of paying by contactless card, even for smaller sums, where cash is traditionally preferred.

This is not only due to people preferring card transactions amid the pandemic for hygiene reasons: the Italian government has introduced a number of measures within the past two years to encourage (and in some cases require) electronic payments, as part of a push to crack down on widespread tax evasion.

Take-out is much more widely available

While a good number of restaurants in Italy’s major towns and cities offered takeaway food and drinks before the pandemic, this is now standard all over the country.

Some places even got creative, offering to deliver pre-packaged, par-cooked box meals you could easily finish at home with the help of online videos.

Realising that the big delivery companies were taking a significant chunk of their profit, a few establishments set up their own delivery systems (if you want to order from somewhere, it’s worth calling them directly first to check whether they offer this).

It’s not just restaurants that have expanded their take-out offering; home delivery in general is more of an option these days.

If you need to order groceries to your house, for example, more supermarkets now let you book a slot online without too much hassle.

This has been a major change for people in smaller towns and more rural parts of the country, where ordering food and drink – particularly coffee – to take away was previously seen as somewhat unusual and undesirable.

Getting your cappuccino to go is now commonplace, even in parts of Italy where this was previously unheard of, and you might even be asked which you prefer when you make your order.

Although whether or not your coffee tastes just as good from a takeout cup is another question – one we know many Italians will have an opinion on.

E-scooter and e-bike craze

Foreign visitors coming to any Italian city after a two-year hiatus are liable to be immediately struck by one thing: Italy has whole-heartedly climbed aboard the monopattino (scooter) revolution wagon.

When the country started to reopen after the first wave of Covid, people looked for ways to travel around their city without being crammed into poorly-ventilated buses and trams, and app-controlled motorised scooters (and bikes) offered themselves up as the answer.

Electric scooters have become a common sight on the streets of Rome since 2020. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

While a switch to bikes and scooters were already fairly popular in other parts of Europe, Italy had remained stubbornly reliant on cars as the main mode of transportation, including in large cities.

The sudden onset of Italy’s electric scooter fever was fueled in 2020 by the government’s offer (now expired) of up to 500 euros towards the purchase price of a brand new e-bike or scooter for residents of Italian cities.

Street corners quickly became littered with discarded scooters, and pedestrians were suddenly imperiled by riders whizzing by on pavements at 25 km/h – problems which the government has since tried to resolve (with varying degrees of success) by introducing new laws to regulate this brave new mode of transportation.

Returning visitors might also notice that additional bike and scooter lanes have popped up in some cities to accommodate this extra traffic.

Construction and renovation boom

Policies brought in to support Italy’s economic recovery from the pandemic have prompted a (small-scale) construction boom.

It’s not the kind you’ll notice wandering the streets, however, as we’re talking less about erecting skyscrapers than about private homeowners earthquake-proofing their walls and putting solar panels on their roofs, as well as in some cases embarking upon rebuilding and renovation projects.

In May 2020, the government launched its ‘superbonus‘ home improvement and renovations scheme, which promised homeowners a tax deduction of up to 110 percent of the cost of making energy upgrades and reducing seismic risk.

Unsurprisingly, this prompted a surge in demand that Italy’s building companies have been unable to meet.

Construction firms, engineers and surveyors reported being overwhelmed by the sheer number of enquiries about the offer – many of which come to nothing once homeowners discovered that few people are eligible for the full 110 percent rebate.

Significant savings are still possible, though, and many property owners did go ahead with renovations – often only to face long delays to their projects.

Despite these problems, the policy has had the desired effect of boosting the country’s sluggish economy, with its construction sector recording investments of more than €9 billion under the scheme by November 2021.

The building ‘superbonus’ and ‘ecobonus’ schemes are still available in 2022, along with various other tax incentives for homeowners planning a renovation.

And despite the pandemic’s shake-up of the property market, house prices in Italy actually rose during 2021 overall, while a government scheme (that runs until June 30th, 2022) to help first-time buyers under the age of 36 purchase a house enabled many young Italians to leave their parental home for the first time.

Italy’s population crisis has worsened

Italy has long had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, and the situation has only been worsened by the coronavirus crisis.

In 2020 the Italian population shrank by almost 400,000 — roughly the size of the city of Florence — as deaths peaked, births fell to a new record low, and immigration slowed.

Many blame the ongoing birthrate crisis at least partially on the sluggish economy, the rising cost of living, and lack of financial support available for new parents.

In response, the Italian government has vowed to give more support to women and families and has since begun offering various forms of child support for the first time. In 2022, the government introduced a universal single allowance.

Have you noticed any other changes to life in Italy which are not mentioned in this article? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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