Italy Coronavirus/Covid-19 Bulletin: Sunday 14th March 2021 at 15:57
Number of new coronavirus cases in Italy today: 21,315 - increase of 570 from equivalent day last week (7th March - 20,745) Number of new cases yesterday: 26,062 Daily difference: decrease of 4,747 Number of people currently infected in Italy: 531,266 (increase of 11,205 compared to previous day) Weekly Comparison Total number of new cases in the last 7 days (8th - 14th March): 155,687 Total number of new cases in previous 7 day period (1st - 7th March): 142,209 Difference: increase of 13,478 (9%) Coronavirus/Covid-19 Daily Bulletin: Saturday 13th March 2021 at 16:08
Number of new coronavirus cases in Italy today: 26,062 - increase of 2,462 from equivalent day last week (6th March - 23,600) Number of new cases yesterday: 26,824 Daily difference: decrease of 762 Number of people currently infected in Italy: 520,061 (increase of 10,744 compared to previous day) Weekly Comparison Total number of new cases in the last 7 days (7th - 13th March): 155,148 Total number of new cases in previous 7 day period (28th February - 6th March): 138,911 Difference: increase of 16,237 (12%) Coronavirus/Covid-19 in Italy daily bulletin: Friday 12th March 2021 at 16:44
Number of new coronavirus cases in Italy today: 26,824 - increase of 2,796 from equivalent day last week (5th March - 24,028) Number of new cases yesterday: 25,673 Daily difference: increase of 1,151 Number of people currently infected in Italy: 509,317 (increase of 11,967 compared to previous day) Weekly Comparison Total number of new cases in the last 7 days (6th - 12th March): 152,686 Total number of new cases in previous 7 day period (27th February - 5th March): 134,212 Difference: increase of 18,474 (14%) Good morning everyone on Friday 12th March. Don't look now, but I think I've just seen the weekend approaching.
Unsurprisingly, the news over the past week has been dominated by the Coronavirus pandemic which has taken a tighter grip on Italy. Figures continue to rise with another 25,673 new cases being reported yesterday; an increase of more than 3,000 on the day before and roughly the same increase compared to the equivalent day last week. The current 'R' number (reproduction rate) in Italy is 1.16 and as we all know so well by now, if it's anything above 1, the numbers will keep going up. So what's the solution? Well, a raft of new measures to combat the virus are about to be approved with the headline-grabber concerning Easter. From 3rd to 5th April the whole country will become a "zona rossa", a red zone where restrictions are tightest. The one exception to this is the island of Sardinia which has managed to keep its new infections and R number relatively under control. In addition to those Easter restrictions, as of Monday we should see all of the regions that are currently an orange zone (slightly less stringent restrictions) turn to red, all of the yellow turn to orange and even some of the yellow zones change from the third tier of restrictions directly to red. The Astra Zeneca vaccine made headlines across Europe yesterday when Denmark, followed by other countries) stopped using the jab in response to a small number of people suffering serious illness shortly after their inoculation. One has to wonder at the wisdom of such a measure when there was no evidence linking the vaccination to the illnesses, knowing the reaction it would create and the oxygen it would breathe into the cause of vaccine-sceptics. News followed in Italy of two men that sadly died shortly after receiving the vaccine, but again, without anything to suggest it was the vaccine itself that caused the problem. There have been around 30 cases of serious illness for people that have recently been vaccinated, out of a total of 5 million vaccinations in the EU. Still, none of those 30 have directly been attributed to the vaccine itself. There have been some more positive pieces of news emerging over the past 24 hours: the government of France has announced that it will allow British tourists to enter the country soon. This is in part, due to the successful vaccination rollout in the UK, allied to the fact that "the English Variant" is already widely in circulation and western Europe's prevalent virus mutation. It follows that if the French are thinking this way, then governments of the neighbouring countries are likely to follow suit eventually. My summary of the current situation in Italy is that yes, it's really bad and action needs to be taken immediately. That action will be taken, and the beginning of April should see the numbers of new cases already in decline before a much sharper drop when the extra vaccine supplies arrive, again at the beginning of April and the warmer weather which we know has a huge impact on the contagion levels. The burning question on everyone's lips is "will it be possible to have a holiday in Italy this year?", and I'm very confident that it will. It might not be possible until the middle of May or early June, but I do honestly think we can look forward to a significant chunk of summer being available to us. Ok, enough pandemic for one morning, let's have a look at that weather. Well it should be sunny in most of the country today although with some cloudy spells particularly in the central areas of the country. The coldest city today will be Venice with a maximum of 10° Celsius while Catania and Cagliari lead the way with 18° C. To finish off today, let's head south and bask in the warm waters of Sicily. I recently spoke about the Sicilian island group known as the Pelagie Islands (mainly Lampedusa and Linosa), and today I'm going to take a look at another island group that lies on the opposite side of Sicily. Situated a short distance from the north-east coast of Sicily are the Aeolian Islands. There are seven inhabited islands in the archipelago with Lipari the most populous with around 13,000 inhabitants, and Alicudi the least-populated with around 120 souls on a good day. The Aeolian Islands are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, earning their inscription with their contribution to the science of vulcanology. In a country where Mount Vesuvius destroyed nearby Pompeii and Mount Etna continues to roar until this very day, it's not unusual to encounter volcanoes and here we have several in close proximity. The island of Stromboli is almost permanently to be found with a cloud of smoke above it and it pulls in a lot of visitors that come to witness its displays of lava flow which are particularly spectacular at night. Further volcanic activity can be witnessed on the island of Vulcano where you can climb up to the crater (if you really want to!), or you can enjoy the slightly more sedate black sand beaches and hot springs at ground level. Each of the islands offers something slightly different from the others: Panarea for example is known for its glamour and party-life, pretty Salina for its lush foliage and Lipari for being the cultural hub of the archipelago. The remote island of Filicudi with its population of 200 permanent residents lies between Linosa and the most remote of all the islands: Alicudi. The islands can be reached from a number of ports around the country, but most notably from Milazzo on the Sicilian mainland where it takes 40 minutes to reach the nearest island: Vulcano. Ferries are also available from Messina and Palermo or from much further north in Naples. The proximity of the islands to the region of Calabria means it's also possible to join a private excursion from that region's main seaside resorts including Tropea. Well that's my little contribution for the day; thank you all for following the blog this week through these turbulent times. I know it all feels quite bleak at the moment but it won't be long before we're all sitting by the beach in Italy, enjoying some wonderful food and relaxing in the sunshine, wondering what all that pandemic fuss was about. Have a great weekend and we'll see what's happening in Italy again on Monday. Ciao! Covid-19 in Italy Daily Bulletin: Thursday 11th March 2021 at 16:35
Number of new coronavirus cases in Italy today: 25,673 - increase of 2,834 from equivalent day last week (4th March - 22,839) Number of new cases yesterday: 22,409 Daily difference: increase of 3,264 Number of people currently infected in Italy: 497,350 (increase of 10,276 compared to previous day) Weekly Comparison Total number of new cases in the last 7 days (5th - 11th March): 149,924 Total number of new cases in previous 7 day period (26th February - 4th March): 130,669 Difference: increase of 19,255 (13%) Good morning everyone on Thursday 11th March. It's certainly been a gloomy period in terms of reporting on the Italian Coronavirus pandemic over the past 6 weeks or so but it looks like we finally have a significant, positive development, which I'll get to in a moment.
The Covid-19 virus has been waging its war on the country with extra venom recently and continued its upward surge with 22,409 new cases reported yesterday. That was an increase of around 2,500 from the day before and 1,500 from the equivalent day the previous week. So despite the current restrictions that are in place, the virus is spreading faster and further restrictions will need to be imposed. It has been suggested that the system of colour-coded regions with their own sets of restrictions may be scrapped for a nationwide system in which the rules are the same everywhere. I would be surprised if that happened any time soon though, especially when you consider Sardinia recently moved into the white/light restriction zone while the likes of Campania turned red and into much tighter curbs; how would it work if they both had the same restrictions suddenly? There will be some changes, perhaps in the next 24 hours but I suspect they will be a little more gradual. Those last two paragraphs outline the general negative direction we've been heading in for the last month but by the end of March, we may well be, finally on the road out of this. The Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza has announced that Italy will receive 50 million jabs in the second quarter of this year, followed by a further 30 million in the third quarter. Just under 6 million people have already received their first jab out of Italy's total population of around 60 million, of which there are around 50 million adults. This leaves around 44 million adults awaiting their first jab. With those supplies expected to arrive at the beginning of April, preparations are already underway to overhaul the vaccination program in order to achieve the aim of vaccinating the entire adult population by the end of June, at least with a first dose. Huge vaccination centres are being established at places like football stadiums, shopping centre car parks and other large public spaces. Yesterday I mused that by stating the aim of inoculating every Italian by the end of June, the authorities must have known something we didn't and Speranza's statement seems to bear that out. Up until now, the vaccination rollout in Italy has centred around health workers and others at risk through their jobs. The Health Minister added that the level of contagion among those who have been vaccinated has "collapsed". I've written the above with the knowledge of some worrying news coming out of Denmark about the Astra Zeneca vaccine this morning but there doesn't seem to be any firm evidence that the side-effects were caused by the jab. I saw a figure of 22 serious side-effects being reported from a total of 5 million people in the EU that have been vaccinated and even with those small numbers, it's not clear if the vaccine itself was directly responsible. Italy will now plough ahead with its vaccination program in a slightly different way than it has up to this point. Priority will now be based on age and those most at risk due to ongoing health problems, very similar in fact to the way the rollout has happened in the UK. It's a sunny day today in most of Italy; usual suspect Turin is propping up the table with the lowest temperature of 7° Celsius while Catania in Sicily continues to lead the way with 17° C. These are fairly average numbers for this time of year but we should see things warm up significantly from April onwards. Today's spotlight falls on the northern city of Verona. Sandwiched between Lake Garda to its west and Venice to its east (that's a pretty tasty sandwich!), Verona is one of the jewels of the Veneto region. It's one of Italy's most historic cities where you'll find ancient landmarks such as the Verona Arena, second perhaps only to Rome's Colosseum in terms of Roman monuments on the Italian peninsula. The River Adige, the country's second longest river behind the River Po, gracefully flows through Verona and is crossed by two landmark bridges. The oldest of those is the Ponte Pietra (literally "Stone Bridge"), another Roman structure built in 100 BC while arguably more iconic is the Castelvecchio Bridge, also known as the Ponte Scaligero after the famous family that once ruled the city. This bridge in many ways resembles a fortress because of its crenellations and turrets which see it as an extension of the city's castle: the Castelvecchio. Those crenellations, the battlements on top of the bridge, lead us nicely into the story that Verona is most famous for these days. There are two types of crenellation most commonly-used in Italy and believe it or not, they have a heavy political significance. The swallow tail crenellations of the Castelvecchio Bridge, as opposed to the flat crenellations of other structures, tell us that it was built by Ghibelline sympathisers. The story of the Guelphs (sympathisers for the pope) and Ghibellines (favouring the Holy Roman Empire) is hugely important in Italian history as it divided the peninsula throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. You can run a search to see which city supported which faction, and in Verona's case, it was one that was split between the two. The backdrop to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, set in Verona, was the warring factions of the Montagues (Ghibellines) and Capulets (Guelphs) which saw the two lovers on opposing sides of the political spectrum. Fictitious though Shakespeare's story may be, it has captured the hearts of the world's lovers since it was written at the end of the 16th century. In Verona you can visit places such as the House of Juliet (Casa di Giulietta), where of course you'll find the balcony from whence she sought out her paramour, or indeed Romeo's house just a short walk away. There's even a museum where you can visit Juliet's final resting place (Juliet's Tomb and Frescoes Museum) and such is the legend that surrounds it, that one can momentarily forget it isn't real. Away from the references to Romeo and Juliet, Verona has much more to offer with beautiful squares such as Piazza Bra, Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori where a statue of Italian poet Dante takes centre-stage. The city can be viewed as a whole from some wonderful vantage points including the Torre dei Lamberti or from the hillside area of Castel San Pietro which can be reached by funicular railway. Well that's all from me for this morning. I'll be back tomorrow with another blog and a look at somewhere else in the country. This afternoon I'll post the latest Coronavirus figures both on the website and the newly-set-up Twitter page. I'm not expecting a reduction in the numbers but I would urge you all to think ahead, to May and beyond when the situation should be greatly improved. For those of you following on Facebook, thank you so much for all your likes and positive comments, it's great to know these updates are of use to some of you and I hope they also provide some travel ideas for future trips to Italy. Have a great day. Italy Coronavirus Figures: Wednesday 10th March 2021 at 16:58
Number of new coronavirus cases in Italy today: 22,409 - increase of 1,545 from equivalent day last week (20,864) Number of new cases yesterday: 19,749 Difference: increase of 2,660 Number of people currently infected in Italy: 487,074 (increase of 8,191 compared to previous day) Weekly Comparison Total number of new cases in the last 7 days (4th - 10th March): 147,114 Total number of new cases in previous 7 day period (25th February - 3rd March): 127,705 Difference: increase of 19,409 (15%) Morning everyone on Wednesday 10th March. The fledgling month has grown wings and we're almost a third of the way through it already. Whilst it's all tempus fugit in one regard, the country is still dragging its heels through the Coronavirus pandemic with a slow-motion vaccination program and case numbers reaching an unacceptably-high plateau.
The number of new Covid-19 cases reported in Italy yesterday was 19,749; that was a big increase on the previous day (13,902) but not wholly unexpected as there's always a slowdown over the weekend. I think whatever figure is announced later today will be of much more interest. Doing some amateur mathematics and studying the general pattern, I would anticipate somewhere between 18 and 19 thousand this evening which would actually be fairly good news and represent a week on week reduction. Putting optimism to one side for a moment and looking the facts squarely in the eye; even if we do see a small reduction in case numbers later this evening, it's not enough to get the situation back under control quickly enough. New measures are now being discussed and it could be as early as this weekend that we see a national lockdown in place for weekends only. This is of course in addition to the current ban on movement between regions and overnight curfew, as well as the colour-coded regional restrictions which are outlined on the home page. I will cling to the claims that every Italian will be offered a vaccine by the end of June, something that seems extraordinarily optimistic at this stage but it would suggest the authorities are confident on the forthcoming supplies. You'd lie to think they know something we don't! If we go back to the days when there were no vaccines at all, we found more innovative ways of stopping the pandemic and it's nice to see another one of those coming to light over the past 24 hours. At the beginning of April, the first "Covid-free train" will run between Rome and Milan. Passengers will be tested before they board the train and only allowed to travel if their test produces a negative result. This scheme will gradually be widened to include major tourist areas and the trains that serve them. That's a really positive move and we now need a lot more of that whilst vaccine supplies are still low. Away from the pandemic, life does go on and it's the world of sport grabbing the headlines at the moment. Last night, Italy's most successful football team, Juventus were knocked out of the Champions League on home turf in Turin, while on a more successful note, the Italian Luna Rossa sailing team has drawn level with Team New Zealand in the fight for the prestigious Americas Cup. Over to the weather and most of the country will be enjoying some sunshine today, particularly in the north. Turin with its Alpine backdrop will be coldest with a maximum temperature of 8° Celsius, while at the other end of the spectrum, the Sicilian city of Catania will be warmest of all at 19° C, perhaps a degree or two of that aided by nearby Mount Etna's continued eruptions. Whilst we're in the midst of the pandemic and patiently wait for things to get better, we can of course look ahead to the places we'd like to visit when the restrictions are lifted. Today I'm going to share with you one of my favourite places in Italy: the beautiful Val d'Orcia. Over the course of this blog, I've looked at beaches, cities, lakes and regions as a whole, but today we're looking at a slightly different category. As the name suggests, the Val d'Orcia is a valley region and situated within the Province of Siena in Tuscany. Since 2004, the Val d'Orcia has been recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, its listing awarded as an exemplar of agrarian management and landscaping. Siena was a city state during the Renaissance period in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the valley region was reshaped to create a more aesthetically-pleasing landscape. Well you can say they did a pretty good job: the Val d'Orcia really is the epitome of what people hope to find when they visit Tuscany. The sweeping landscape of rolling hills, encrusted with Cypress trees and a series of historical hill towns. Perhaps the most beguiling area is that around the town of Pienza, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right. From Pienza you can get some of the Val d'Orcia's best views but there are many more places from which to enjoy the 150 thousand or so acres of its territory. There are some wonderful hiking routes in the area, but if like me, you enjoy a scenic drive, then you can have a wonderful time exploring the valley by car. The little stretch of road between Pienza and the small town of San Quirico d'Orcia is one of the prettiest but it doesn't end there. Other small towns of note in the valley region are Castiglione d'Orcia and Bagno Vignoni while the famous hill towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino are a must if you're in the area. One of the best things about Tuscany is that this type of landscape is repeated throughout the region. Slightly to the north of the Val d'Orcia is a town called Asciano which marks the gateway to the Crete Senesi area, another valley region which draws gasps for its beautiful landscapes. The second part of that name senesi indicates "from Siena" and that's because the city itself is just a short distance from there. Siena deserves and will have its own spotlight on this blog in the future, but suffice to say, basing oneself in Siena, enjoying all that city has to offer and then an exploration of its hinterland is one of the best things you can do in Italy. Well that's all from me today. I'll post the latest Coronavirus figures when they're released later today, both on the website and the Italy Review Twitter feed which has just been set up. That Twitter feed has very few followers (maybe one now I think!) at the moment so any votes of confidence on there would be most welcome. As always, let's hope for some good news later; enjoy the rest of your day and also the photos of the beautiful Val d'Orcia. Buona giornata Italy Coronavirus Figures: Tuesday 9th March 2021
Number of new coronavirus cases in Italy today: 19,749 - increase of 2,710 from equivalent day last week (17,039) Number of new cases yesterday: 13,902 Difference: increase of 5,847 Number of people currently infected in Italy: 478,883 (increase of 6,350 compared to previous day) Weekly Comparison Total number of new cases in the last 7 days (3rd - 9th March): 145,703 Total number of new cases in previous 7 day period (24th February - 2nd March): 123,250 Difference: increase of 22,453 (18%) Good morning on Tuesday 9th March. Today's news in Italy focuses almost entirely around the Coronavirus pandemic; a marked contrast from the UK where a little story about a couple of ex-royals and their struggles through life has taken centre stage.
Yesterday in Italy there were 13,902 new cases of Covid-19; that's a big drop on the day before (20,765) but largely attributable to the "weekend lag" in reporting. The numbers typically spike up again on a Tuesday so we should expect to see something around the twenty thousand mark again later. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and that it's lower, but I don't want to build too much excitement only to have the bubble burst. A grim milestone of 100,000 Covid-related deaths was reached yesterday and prompted comments from Italy's leaders to speed up the vaccination program. A report in the Corriere della Sera outlines a plan for 60 million Italians to be vaccinated by the end of June with at least a first dose. In order to achieve that target, the vaccination programme will need to eclipse its current output but there do seem to be some more positive noises surrounding supply lines. The Moderna vaccine will soon be delivered and in use alongside the Pfizer and Astra Zeneca jabs while it also looks as though the single-jab Janssen/Johnson and Johnson product will be approved for use in the EU later this week. In addition, Italy will be the first EU country to produce the Russian Sputnik vaccine although approval and delivery of that are not expected until later in the year. On to the weather and the country is divided into three today with a sunny but cold north, a rain-affected centre and a sunny south. Temperatures today will range from a chilly 6° Celsius in Trento to a much more agreeable 16° C in Palermo. Continuing our Italian odyssey, we're going to head south today towards the region of Basilicata. Referring to that very useful analogy of Italy as the shape of a boot, Basilicata occupies the area of the instep. It shares a border with Puglia to its north and east, Campania to its west and Calabria to its south. To the west it has a tiny section of coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea while to its east it has a larger section on the Ionian Sea. If you ever wanted to do some research on the region you could do worse than watch the film: Basilicata Coast to Coast (2010) where a ragtag group of friends decide to cross the region on foot, starting at Maratea on the Tyrrhenian Coast and ending up in Scanzano on the Ionian. The first of those resorts: Maratea, is a beautiful town which is almost three-pronged: it has a lovely little marina area, a charming centro storico (historic centre) a few kilometres inland and the gigantic Redentore (Statue of Christ the Redeemer) looking down on it all from a mountain top. To reach the statue requires an act of pilgrimage on foot or a slightly-less demanding but by no means insignificant approach by car. On the way up, you lose count of the hairpin bends as you snake your way to the summit, before being faced with an horrendous-looking stretch of road which seems to balance precariously in the sky. Basilicata's major attraction is the city of Matera. Now the capital of one of the region's two provinces, Matera is one of the world's oldest, continuously-inhabited cities with a settlement there reportedly as far back as the Troglodyte period in the tenth century BC. The city was an impoverished backwater until relatively recently when it received two huge boosts to its tourism. The first of those was in 1993 when it was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the heading "The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera". The sassi (the singular form is sasso which means rock/stone/crag in English) are the two districts of cave dwellings while the word "rupestrian" relates to work (usually art) created in caves and in this case refers to some of Matera's churches which are located in grottoes. The region as a whole really does give one a feeling of stepping back in time, perhaps even more so than other historic parts of the country, because that history goes back a bit further here. That feeling is only heightened by the fact that Basilicata has been relatively untouched by modernity when compared to its neighbours, particularly in terms of the development of tourism. There are many other places in Basilicata where that sense of time standing still is tangible; none more so than the "ghost town" of Craco, which along with Matera (and this its second big tourism boost), featured as a backdrop for the 2004 Mel Gibson film: The Passion of the Christ. Though it does have the aforementioned coastlines, and much as the town of Maratea merits a visit, it really is the hilly, mysterious interior of Basilicata which provides its greatest lure. That sense of history is ever-present, even in the strangeness of the rock formations in somewhere like the Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Regional Park where villages such as Pietrapertosa and Castelmezzano seem to cling for dear life on cliff-edges. With the popularity of Matera and nearby Alberobello in the region of Puglia, Basilicata is starting to be discovered by more and more people but it would be a shame if it was ever to lose its historical mystique. I'll leave you with a few images of Basilicata for now and I'll be back with another blog tomorrow. For those of you following on Facebook; I've decided not to post the daily Coronavirus figures there each evening, so as not to take away attention from the blog itself. Instead, that early evening statistical bulletin will be posted on the website and also on the Italy Review Twitter page. Let's hope for a nice, low number later and I wish you all a wonderful day in the meantime. |
AuthorMy name is Dion Protani, founder of Italy Review. The Italy Review blog is designed to provide ideas and inspiration to visit places in Italy you might not have heard about, as well those you have. Archives
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