Plans to go to Italy anyone?
Jan 27, 2021, 11:03 am
#16
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 26
May I ask what part of italy are you from? We were there in August 2020 and September and everything was open at least in the areas we went. Our plan is to go in May for a month
I am afraid that travelling in Italy will be challenging for Italians themselves this year, without mentioning foreign tourists.
Last time we could have a dinner out was back in the beginning of October (otherwise take away, but honestly...). Museums are closed even in yellow zone. Ski resorts are closed, even though it would have been the easiest activity to control (limit of daily ski passes in order to avoid qiues at ski lift). The government did not give any relaxation to tourist activities over Christmas holidays, as they have seen what happened during summer months when there were no controls and no hard restrictions.
In theory one can travel, if needed and the restrictions are rather "loose", but shall one enjoy this type of travel?
Last time we could have a dinner out was back in the beginning of October (otherwise take away, but honestly...). Museums are closed even in yellow zone. Ski resorts are closed, even though it would have been the easiest activity to control (limit of daily ski passes in order to avoid qiues at ski lift). The government did not give any relaxation to tourist activities over Christmas holidays, as they have seen what happened during summer months when there were no controls and no hard restrictions.
In theory one can travel, if needed and the restrictions are rather "loose", but shall one enjoy this type of travel?
Jan 27, 2021, 3:03 pm
#17
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: ITA
Posts: 171
I am in Liguria and we are not in such a bad situation as other regions (currently in orange zone, probably in yellow starting next week). August and September 2020 were a completely different pair of shoes compared to the limitations started since end of October.
Jan 27, 2021, 3:35 pm
#18
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 26
Thank you, I'll keep monitoring. Plan is go to Rome to spend time with family and then Puglia. Hopefully everything is open again. I felt so much safer in Italy then I do in the US when it comes to the virus .
Jan 27, 2021, 4:06 pm
#19
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: ITA
Posts: 171
We don't know if goverment lifts at least travel between yellow regions after February 15th.
At least here rules (some arguable, but still rules) are in place and are sort of enforced. I definitely prefer to be in Italy in this period rather than in USA.
At least here rules (some arguable, but still rules) are in place and are sort of enforced. I definitely prefer to be in Italy in this period rather than in USA.
Jan 28, 2021, 3:29 am
#21
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: ITA
Posts: 171
Limitation on travels between yellow regions is till February 15th. Then they will decide whether to extend it or not till March 5th, when the current decree expires.
Feb 6, 2021, 3:59 pm
#22
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Let me offer a more optimistic outlook:
1) The vaccine effect kicks in immediately! It is minimal when only one person is vaccinated and it rises as more and more are immune until herd immunity "takes over". It is assumed by epidemiologists that, for Covid-19, this will be the case when about 60-70% of the population is immune. Whether this will be in autumn of earlier or later will depend on the speed at which the population gets vaccinated as well as on facts relating to the virus's biology that can not be predicted now.
.
1) The vaccine effect kicks in immediately! It is minimal when only one person is vaccinated and it rises as more and more are immune until herd immunity "takes over". It is assumed by epidemiologists that, for Covid-19, this will be the case when about 60-70% of the population is immune. Whether this will be in autumn of earlier or later will depend on the speed at which the population gets vaccinated as well as on facts relating to the virus's biology that can not be predicted now.
.
The two shot vaccines take about 6-7 weeks after the first shot, then wait 3-4 weeks for the second shot, then a week or two for the immune response to build up.
Look at a country like Israel, which is approaching injecting at least one shot to 50% of its population. There have been some positive reports by HMOs citing the infection numbers only being a couple of percent out of hundreds of thousands vaccinated. However, their case rates are still high. Look at their new cases chart:
https://www.worldometers.info/corona...ountry/israel/
They're still much higher than other periods in the past year, despite so many people vaccinated. Of course they haven't reached herd immunity percentages. This week Fauci told NPR Fresh Air that he'd like to see at least 70-85% of Americans vaccinated. Maybe then the case numbers start to drop but new virus variants are showing in the lab that they're able to avoid antibodies, or it takes much higher levels of antibodies to clear them.
Last summer, the Italian tourism industry was really hurting. They let some tourists from outside Schengen in but they missed the big-spending American tourists.
So they'd probably love to have tourism going full tilt this summer or at some point this year. But right now cases per day are still high, much higher than last March or April when they suffered a lot of deaths:
https://www.worldometers.info/corona...country/italy/
Italy is behind the US in vaccinations so it may take them most of the year to vaccinate most of its population.
Feb 6, 2021, 6:57 pm
#23
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,567
In a different forum, I provided the following WHO link (here) that offers a very good explanation for herd immunity, etc. and I will no longer discuss specific items that are, as we saw, difficult to understand even by physicians. As for Fauci, please, he's been misquoted continuously over the last year, no reason to continue doing so now.
Feb 6, 2021, 7:32 pm
#24
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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Posts: 5,226
Oh really? Then what is this?
On whether COVID-19 will be with us forever like influenza
I don't think we need to make that assumption. That certainly is a possibility — that you would have enough virus floating around and changing from year to year, that you would have to treat it in some respects, the way we treat seasonal influenza, where you have to upgrade the vaccine almost every year.
There is a way, if done properly, to avoid that, and that is, for example, if we successfully vaccinate 70 to 85% of the people in the United States and dramatically diminish the level of infection — if we were living in a vacuum in only the United States, then I don't think we'd have to worry about seasonal turnover and having to match. But we live in a global community and unless we get the rest of the world adequately vaccinated and unless we don't have the opportunity of this virus to mutate in a place that doesn't have access to vaccines, we will always be threatened.
I don't think we need to make that assumption. That certainly is a possibility — that you would have enough virus floating around and changing from year to year, that you would have to treat it in some respects, the way we treat seasonal influenza, where you have to upgrade the vaccine almost every year.
There is a way, if done properly, to avoid that, and that is, for example, if we successfully vaccinate 70 to 85% of the people in the United States and dramatically diminish the level of infection — if we were living in a vacuum in only the United States, then I don't think we'd have to worry about seasonal turnover and having to match. But we live in a global community and unless we get the rest of the world adequately vaccinated and unless we don't have the opportunity of this virus to mutate in a place that doesn't have access to vaccines, we will always be threatened.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...ch-to-covid-19
Some gall accusing me of misquoting him.
Feb 7, 2021, 2:29 am
#25
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: my heart is on the shores of the north Italian lakes
Programs: LX Senator Lifetime, Relais&Chateaux Club5C, ex ! "Amanjunkie", ex LHW LC, hate chain hotels
Posts: 2,515
Given the situation and travel within the Schengen area being conditional at best to a RT-PCR test of less than 48 (Italy) or 72 (France) hours, I would strongly recommend all our US friends even not thinking about traveling to Europe this summer. Plan for a nice autumn break with mild weather and an improved situation.
btw: Even interregional travel is still not possible within Italy.
btw: Even interregional travel is still not possible within Italy.
Feb 7, 2021, 11:58 am
#26
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Hi,
I am hoping to be able to visit Italy (Venice) from the UK in Summer ( late July/August)
Regards
TBS
I am hoping to be able to visit Italy (Venice) from the UK in Summer ( late July/August)
Regards
TBS
Feb 14, 2021, 2:31 pm
#27
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
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I have booked a stay in the Naples area in March. I need a PCR test <72hrs to return to France. Do you know if it is possible to do it in NAP airport ? The airport website has 0 information. I am sure they do tests on arrival, but my question is for departing pax. If not do you know where to find a list of labs in Naples or do you have one to recommend not charging an atrocious price .
thank you
.thank you
Feb 14, 2021, 8:01 pm
#28
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,567
This is the official list of all private laboratories that carry out PCR tests for C-19 in Campania. None at the airport but you may find one in the area you'll be visiting.
Feb 15, 2021, 9:55 am
#29
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: my heart is on the shores of the north Italian lakes
Programs: LX Senator Lifetime, Relais&Chateaux Club5C, ex ! "Amanjunkie", ex LHW LC, hate chain hotels
Posts: 2,515
totally unpredictable and crazy - in sharp contrast to France
RT-PCR tests are hard to get and results are quite slow, made one recently and waited 48 hours.... (Nobody checked me at the road border to France then).
This said, if your trip is for leisure, postpone it to after Easter, the chief expert along with the health minister are just pressing now the new president of the council for more stringent measures and I can see a total lockdown coming. As an example, they just decided NOT to open ski areas less than 24 hours before they were due to open - pure craziness and unpredictable.
This said, if your trip is for leisure, postpone it to after Easter, the chief expert along with the health minister are just pressing now the new president of the council for more stringent measures and I can see a total lockdown coming. As an example, they just decided NOT to open ski areas less than 24 hours before they were due to open - pure craziness and unpredictable.
Last edited by behuman; Feb 15, 2021 at 10:02 am
Feb 18, 2021, 11:28 pm
#30
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: LON
Programs: Miles and More
Posts: 486
I'm booked for 10 days holiday mostly in Italy in early July. With luck I'll be vaccinated by then but you can easily get holiday PCR tests here for departure (12-24 hour results) and Torino airport has a 15-min test result service for departure. Doing several land border crossings by bike between Italy and France over the 10 days. Transport and hotels I'm burning points while I can and all parties say it's fully refundable which is nice.