I’ve been in Italy for almost two weeks now and I thought I’d give a little report about what things are like. My first week was in Bologna and this week was Florence.
Museums/Sights- almost everything is open. A few places that are too small to follow the current government max occupancy rules are closed. For instance, the Orsanmichele church and the State Apartments at the Pitti Palace in Florence are currently closed for that reason. Guidebooks such as RS and Lonely Planet aren’t very reliable with the current Covid rules. That’s not their fault, they couldn’t possibly keep up with all the changes in rules. Check everything!! Research is what is going to make a trip possible this summer. Don’t trust Google or any guidebook for opening days/hours. You have to look at every website or go by the place if you’re already there.
Reservations- in the major tourist cities (Venice, Florence, Rome) assume that you need to check to see if reservations are required. According to the Italian government Covid rules, all places that sell tickets must be reserved at least one day in advance if you are visiting on a weekend or holiday. Now, in practice that wasn’t required at some of the smaller places. But be aware that is the current rule. For instance, today in Lucca (Saturday) I walked into every place I went with no reservation. Each place is deciding whether to enforce that rule or not.
Transportation- trains are running at 50% occupancy, which is actually very nice. You never have someone sitting beside you or across from you. However, with some more popular routes, trains can sell out faster now. Once they sell 50% of the seats, that train is no longer available. Just plan ahead. That’s usually only an issue on the high-speed trains and some Regionale Veloce trains during morning and late afternoon rush hours. Buses don’t seem to have any rules about max occupancy. Or at least no one was enforcing them.
Restaurants- when I arrived the only option was outdoor seating. On June 1 indoor seating was reopened across the country. That makes it much easier to find a place to eat without having a reservation.
Tourists- because things are opening back up, there are definitely people visiting the tourists sights. In Bologna it was almost exclusively Italians at tourists sights. In Florence there were a lot more foreign tourists (Germans, Russians and Americans in that order), but still many fewer than normal. I got a picture of the David statue with no one in front of it. There were only about 15 people in the room.
Prognosis for summer- currently most of Italy is still in the “yellow zone” which means you can travel between regions and restaurants and museums, etc. are all open. The hope from the Italian government is that the whole country will be in the white zone within a few weeks. That doesn’t mean that much for us, but supposedly there is talk that the outdoor mask mandate may be dropped on July 1. Nothing definite yet.
Hope this helps. I’m happy to answer any specific questions you guys have!!