13901

This just came in, and I haven’t read the full details, but from 16/12 and until at least 31/01 Italy is now requiring ALL arrivals to be tested. You can be vaccinated, you might have a EU green pass… it doesn’t matter. You must have either a PCR done 48hr before entering the country or an antigen/ lateral flow done 24hrs before entering the country.

Frankly I always gave some rope to Speranza, the health minister, but this is hard to understand, and the EU is justifiably pi$$ed. It also makes a mockery of the whole GP system.

source in Italian here.

https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/obbl...esi-ue-AEDxAq2

behuman

Disgruntle the vaccinated and discourage boostering. Switzerland is worse, at least Italy theoretically quarantines the unvaccinated . This said, all this affects / penalizes mainly air travel, the land borders are uncontrollable.

Draghi has a strong position and can do whatever his leftist ministers wish, the EU will swallow it. Even eroding further free movement and the Schengen area .

Rather close those bars where people are standing while eating / drinking - a typical Italian thing which is nice, but highly inappropriate these days.

Brandinho1

Curious if it’s also required to transit?

13901

I had a brief look around, but on mobile only, and found nothing. I don't know how much transfer traffic on single tickets takes place in Italy these days, with ITA mostly doing domestics and not much else...

theplayer

so for those with late afternoon flights from another EU country, it basically means day of for an antigen test as pharmacies would be closed the day before.

rove312

For some trips from the U.S. in my experience, it would have meant hoping to get through to a video proctor at 4 a.m. before checking in at 6. Some trips from the West Coast with two changes could take over 24 hours.

theplayer

should be from time of departure not arrival in Italy, makes little sense.

13901

Indeed, it's arrival in country.

I have to say though, I was speaking with friends who've arrived today at LIN from the UK and who had nothing (no PLF, tests, nothing) checked. Just a cursory glance at the passport.

Buster CT1K

probably because the airlines are supposed to be doing the checking.

brewdog11

The "before arrival in Italy" part is perplexing... and tough to do. Does anyone know if Italy is accepting the eMed COVID-19 tests? Particularly with British Airways?

13901

The ‘before arrival’ means that the 48h/24h (depending on the test) count from arrival in country, not point of boarding. If you have a flight with a layover it’s a bit problematic indeed; where possible my advice would be to fly direct.

I don’t know the eMed tests, I assume they’re an American thing. Personally, when flying out of the UK to Italy, I’ve used all sorts of tests: PCRs done in person, LFT/antigen in person, self-made under supervision, self-made and then a certificate was issued. As long as a certificate is issued and you can send it to the airline/show it to staff you’ll be alright.

In my experience of non Schengen border controls, test checks are very spotty and cursory. At best I’ve been asked a Green Pass.

theplayer

why would they use time of arrival when the airline needs to check when boarding? Is Italy also checking test dates on arrival? So dumb.

ratechaser

So... currently booked for Austria next Monday but rumblings that they will be imposing mandatory quarantine requirements on Friday, so I'm trying to get ahead of the game here... and Italy looks to be the last chance saloon for us, and specifically an early flight out on the 26th.

Testing - no problem, assuming self administered LFTs + validation certificate are good... that will be our job before opening the bubbly on Christmas Day...

NHS app / Super Green Pass equivalency - looks ok from what I can see, we have 3 of us (adults) fully vaxxed, and one (16yo) recently recovered, all with NHS QR code passes to that effect.

Are there any holes in that plan as the rules stand right this minute?

13901

The idea is that they want to limit as much as possible the time lapsing between you being tested and you arriving in country, under the assumption that the shorter the time, the lesser the chances of being infected.

An airline agent (assuming they check, I’m yet to see anyone spending more than a second looking at my documents) would know the arrival time/duration of a flight and that’s fairly easy to subtract to the 48-24h window. Assuming you’re not doing a super-complicated itinerary.

Still, it’s just a lot of posturing and I’m still to see anyone doing calculations while
keeping in mind timezones and so on.

13901

Self test with a certificate is what I used to fly in last week. No one checked it.

The NHS Pass works with the Verifica C19 app. I got scanned 100+ times with my pass stored on Apple Wallet and the only issue was when the pass expired after a month of use and I had to re-download it.

most Italian regions are “white”, meaning no particular limitations, while some are “yellow” (some minor limitations). Regardless, mask wearing is enforced in all public places (shops, restaurants when going to the loo and so on) and transport. No “exemptions” allowed. On Trenitalia there are messages to the extent that non maskers will not be allowed to continue. In facts I boarded a Turin-Milan train on Sunday that was running 45 minutes late; a fellow passenger told me that the police had had to come onboard and offload a family of “English” (sic) that weren’t masked and unwilling to do so.