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Traveling from France into Italy via train at the current time

Just a note to say that we took our regular Paris-Turin train last week to go see my mother-in-law. Before reaching the Italian border, some contractors handed out attestations to be filled out (they were printed in French, Italian, and English) from the Italian government.

We had to give all our bio info and state where we would be staying in Italy, and attest that we neither had Covid symptoms, nor had a fever, nor had been in contact with a known Covid-positive person within the last 48 hours.

As they came to collect the papers, they took each of our temperatures with one of those gun-like digital thermometers.

(Strangely enough, on our way OUT of Italy back to France, the Italian folks came through and did the same thing — I.e. collected the exact same attestations with where will you be staying in Italy.

Nowhere on the form (either time) was there a place to denote the train number or date of travel, so i guess they stamped all the ones from the same train or put them together with a rubber band with a post-it in top with date and train number.

One extra note: we went and spent 3 nights on Lago Maggiore at a small hotel in Baveno. When we arrived and the woman at the desk asked for our I.d.s, she definitely looked concerned when I handed over my U.S. passport! We quickly explained that we live in France and handed over that I.d. too.

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9462 posts

I also have to give a shout-out to Lago Maggiore’s favorite RS Forum members, Karen, Tom, and Barley the dog, who took part of their day to welcome us to Verbania and take us on a walk along the coastline, have lunch together, and ferry back to Baveno. A real pleasure ! We even got to take Barley to the dog beach !!

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519 posts

Hi Kim,

very interesting. Yesterday I took my wife and kids to San Juan de Luz to get the train to Paris.

I drove and did not know what to expect at the border. In the end nothing. It actually took my longer than normal because my ViaT just expired so I had to stop and pay the toll.

On Friday I have to go back and get them, and I am crossing my fingers that things don't change.

On a sidenote, for a beautiful Saturday in August, the beach was pretty empty. There were tourist and visitors but it was more like the Fall then the summer.

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32521 posts

I wonder if you stayed at Albergo Eden in Baveno?

We enjoyed our stay there last year.

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9462 posts

Hi Nigel, no, we were at the Albergo Rigoli, which we really liked!!! I remember seeing the Eden. So glad we stayed in Baveno instead of Stresa.

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32521 posts

loved Baveno.

This summer I have worn my new hat from the vendor on Isola Bella to all the gardens we have visited here in England.

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9462 posts

We were so beat we didn't really get time to see anything. I look forward to returning!

My happiest minutes were on the ferry and on our balcony.

Posted by
334 posts

Stresa on Lake Maggiore is my go to place for relaxation after a long holiday. I stay in a small family run hotel away from town but still on the lake.

I am so envious that y’all are getting to travel in Europe. I hope our fight with Covid will be over soon and we Americans can return to the places we love.

Sandra

Posted by
2916 posts

Kim, I was amused by your recounting of the paperwork on the train. Being Italy, I wonder if it all went into the circular file. And it's not just Italy. Several years ago I was returning a car in France, to a hotel because the rental office was closed. I had a bunch of paperwork, and the many I dealt with said: "Here, give it all to me. I'm French, and we know what to do with paper."

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9462 posts

Being Italy, I wonder if it all went into the circular file.

Robert, believe me, that thought has definitely crossed my mind!

But then I think of how they have hired an entire company of contractors to perform this work on apparently every incoming mode of public transport — if they are going to all this trouble and expense, surely they are truly tracking the info somehow!!?????

Then again, that means a lot of somebodies are doing a lot of data entry from all those forms before the info is anything like usable . . .