Good afternoon on Friday 30th April. The bank holiday weekend is just around the corner and time for us all to enjoy a little well-earned r&r. 

As it's Friday I won't focus too much on the pandemic or the news in general; suffice to say at this point that the Covid 19 figures are following a steady trajectory and the newly-announced R rate is still just below the magic 1, even if it's crept up a tiny bit to 0.85 from last week's 0.81. 

This morning I've been working on my latest top ten on Friday feature which I can now reveal was a list of the Top Ten Italian Beach Resorts. There are some subtle differences to the lists of best beaches in Italy and previously-revealed best seaside towns of Italy so click on the link to find out what the different criteria were and which resort came out on top. 

I'll leave you with some images of some of the resorts that made the list. 

Have a great weekend!

Good morning on Thursday 29th April. I remember once as a child asking my mum what would happen if there was no news one day. Would the newsreaders on BBC just sit around shuffling papers or would there just be a blank screen for half an hour? Of course as we all know, the media look for or even create news as much as they report on it and it's quite easy to spot a genuine no news day. Yesterday was one and today is another so rather than going to the lengths of creating a news story myself because that would probably involve some kind of personal trauma, I'll instead just report on the few facts there are. 

Yesterday in Italy there were 13,385 new cases of Covid 19, a very slight decrease on the previous Wednesday's figure and another little sign of stability after the loosening of restrictions at the beginning of the week. Daily vaccination numbers swelled to half a million on Tuesday but dropped a bit yesterday to just over 350,000. I've been reading reports this morning of people turning up for vaccination appointments only to find "chiuso" written on the locked door of the vaccination centre. Word on the street is that vaccine supplies aren't finding their way to some vaccination centres as quickly as they should. Let's hope they're not being intercepted somewhere en-route. 

After a pretty disappointing April in terms of the weather, the wheel finally seems to be grinding towards summer with temperatures reaching as much as 28° Celsius in Calabria today and around the mid-twenties in the fellow southern regions of Puglia, Sicily and Campania. 

That last word, Campania, still doesn't strike much of a chord with international travellers to Italy, despite being one of the country's favourite holiday destinations. It can boast the likes of the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento and Naples with its archeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, or the Cilento Coast and Greek temples of Paestum further to the south. Perhaps best of all though, Campania is the home to three wonderful islands just off the coast of Naples. 

Over the next month or so, the three islands of Ischia, Capri and Procida will be undergoing a mass vaccination program to make each one Covid-free. The idea is to prioritise vaccine supplies to these three islands in order to achieve herd immunity as quickly as possible and to open them all up for tourism within the coming months. Last week I named Ischia as the number one in my list of Top Ten Italian Islands and I recently reported on Procida's award of Italian Capital of Culture for 2022 so let's have a look at the third island in this happy triumvirate: Capri. 

Whilst there's every chance you haven't heard of Campania as a region, it's unlikely the island named after a 1970's sports coupe* will have escaped your attention. It's one of the most popular destinations for a day trip from the ever-popular Sorrento and can be reached by ferry in around 20 minutes. On arrival at the port of Marina Grande you can either take the funicular railway up to La Piazzetta at the centre of Capri Town, or take one of the excursion boats around the island to visit the enchanting Blue Grotto. 

Capri has that "chic" tag attached to it and whilst it's true that you can happily empty your bank accounts in the upscale boutiques of Via Camerelle, the reason the island attracted tourists in the first place was because of its natural beauty. Divided into the two communes of Capri and Anacapri, the Capri commune offers such diverse charms as the Augustus Gardens from where you can look down on to the evocative Faraglioni sea stacks, the beach area of Marina Piccola where the water is of the brightest blue variety, and Villa Jovis, the Roman palace of the Emperor Tiberius from where he ruled the world's affairs while conducting his own rather shady ones: throwing ex (and when I say ex I mean a few minutes ago) lovers from a cliff once they'd fulfilled their purpose. 

You can take a hair-rising bus ride from Capri to the more elevated Anacapri, winding your way around the cliff-edge as the bus sways and slightly dices with death whilst at the same time creating some dramatic views. Anacapri is the more natural, less-touristy half of the island, dominated by Mount Solaro, the 589 metre high summit of which you can reach via a chairlift, and the Villa San Michele/Axel Munthe Museum from where you can enjoy the views down to Marina Grande, just without all the swaying this time.

Well that's all from me today, I'll leave you with a few photos of Capri for and I'll be back tomorrow with the latest Top Ten on Friday; I'm thinking either Top Ten Seaside Towns or Top Ten Hill Towns but all will be revealed tomorrow. 

Buona giornata. 

*Fake news

Good morning on Wednesday 28th April. Aside from the tittle tattle and comment around the Italian Prime Minister's €250 billion Recovery Plan, it's been a fairly slow news day so far and in many ways that's probably a good thing. The other major story is that the authorities have agreed to potentially extend the curfew limit to 23:00 instead of 22:00 by the middle of May. Hardly the sort of thing to set the pulses racing I know. 

Yesterday in Italy there were 10,404 new cases of Covid 19, a drop of 1,662 from the same day of the previous week. The country went through a big reopening phase at he beginning of this week and the longer those numbers remain steady, the more encouraging it will be. An important milestone was reached yesterday when half a million vaccinations were carried out in a single day for the first time; the exact number yesterday was 502,212 and in total, more than 18 million jabs have now been administered.

The current period of lacklustre weather is gradually coming to an end with some warmer temperatures occurring in the island regions of Sicily and Sardinia today with the former set to reach as high as 24° Celsius and the latter around 21° C. 

Today's photos come from the Sardinian island of Tavolara. a tiny island without a system of roads and just a short hop across by ferry from the town of Porto San Paolo. From the east coast of the Sardinian mainland you can see the unusual shape of the island which resembles a stegosaurus with the 565 metre high Monte Cannone arching from one side to the other. 

On arrival at the island following the 20 minute crossing on a little ferry, you're met with a little port area of dazzlingly blue water, a couple of restaurants and a long, narrow stretch of beach. So, nice clear water, sandy beach and restaurants equal a day out at the seaside, but there's something quite strange about Tavolara that sets it apart from other islands.

​Within its population of just twenty people, there is, would you believe, a royal family. In 1836 the King of Sardinia pronounced the island the Kingdom of Tavolara and named a humble fisherman as its new king. So it followed that Giuseppe Bertoleoni became King Giuseppe I. Let's be clear, at this stage the island had but one resident: King Giuseppe himself!

In the intervening years the population has exploded to the heady heights of today's twenty and the royal titles have been passed on through the generations. If you have lunch at the Da Tonino restaurant, one of two on the island, there's every chance you'll be served by King Tonino I, or if not him, perhaps by his sister Princess Madalena. 

Well, that's all from me today and I'll be back with some more tomorrow. 

Buona giornata.

Good morning on Tuesday 27th April, the day after Italy's grand reopening when several pandemic restrictions were eased. The main headlines today centre around the country's €250 billion recovery plan which translates into Italian as "Il Recovery Plan". Prime Minister Mario Draghi outlined details of the scheme to boost the Italian economy after the financial devastation of the last twelve months. The general tenor of what he said was that it's very important and he hopes it works. 

Yesterday in Italy there were 8,444 new cases of Covid 19 reported, that's just a small amount below the figure reported the previous Monday. Vaccinations dropped to 159,069 because much fewer jabs are carried out over the course of a weekend. The new case figures will come into sharp focus over the next few days with so much more freedom of movement; of course we all hope for the numbers to steadily fall but I think at this stage, even some sort of stability would be a positive sign with the last thing we want being another huge spike. 

Yesterday I reported on the story of a man who became shipwrecked on an island in Sardinia which could easily be the plot-line to a film, and today there's another one which may whet the appetites of Hollywood producers. A collection of religious relics went missing from a seminary just outside the Tuscan city of Siena in 1989, the value of which was said to be incalculable. The Italian art police, real name: Carabinieri Art Squad yesterday presented details of their investigation into the matter which concluded with the discovery of the collection at the home of a collector in Sicily who was unable to explain their provenance, a fairly awkward moment you would have to assume. The plot to steal the San Galgano Reliquary as it's known included an insider from the local area in Tuscany who colluded with three Sicilians to carry-out the theft. The items of gold, silver and enamel have now been returned to their rightful owners in Tuscany. 

The weather is inching towards a more predictable pattern, even if temperatures remain unseasonably low. There will be a good deal of rain around the country today but the usual hot spots are emerging with temperatures above 20° Celsius in Sicily and Sardinia. Looking ahead, some warmer days are expected around the country next week but we're still a little way off from being able to say the summer has landed. 

Today's photos come from the Venetian Lagoon and specifically, one of its 118 islands. Burano, not to be confused with the nearby Murano, founded its economic success on the production of lace. However, whilst there are still some vestiges of the lace industry to be seen around the island such as a school dedicated to the art and dozens of shops selling the finished article, it's something altogether different that leaves the most lasting impression. 

Before, and indeed after the lace trade, was the fishing industry, and while the fishermen were out working around the Lagoon, they were comforted when they looked back towards Burano and they could pick out their house because it was painted in a distinctive colour. The array of bright colours and canals lined with medieval buildings makes a compelling case for a visit and Burano can even boast its own leaning tower. 

You can visit Burano and many of the other islands in the Lagoon by using the Venice Water Bus system, which are colloquially-known as vaporetti. Aside from the other-worldly charms of Venice itself, exploring the Lagoon on the vaporetti is a wonderful way to pass some time. 

I'll be back with more tomorrow. 

​Buona giornata

Good morning on Monday 26th April as we roll out the red carpet for a new week. Last night's Oscars proved successful for several British stars but the Italians were left empty handed aside from an appearance on stage by songstress Laura Pausini. 

Today is a big day of hope, excitement and worry in equal measure as a number of Coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Italy's twenty regions have for some time been divided up into a traffic-light system of categories with those worst-affected by the pandemic being placed in the red zone of severest restrictions and the regions with less prevalence of the virus in the orange or yellow zones. 

It had reached the stage in the last month or so when most regions were in either the red or orange zone but as of today, the regions have been recategorised with the majority now in the yellow zone. A road map with dates pertaining to when specific businesses can open up has been put in place and at regular intervals, certain restrictions will be lifted.

As far as today is concerned however, 14 of the twenty regions are in the yellow zone which means all types of shops can open, as well as restaurants and bars serving at outdoor tables. The stiffer restrictions of the orange zones are still in place in the most southerly regions of Basilicata, Puglia, Calabria and Sicily where restaurants can only serve takeaway meals. Non-essential shops are allowed to open in the orange zone but they're not allowed to in the red zone within which Sardinia is now the only region. It's worth noting that the white zone which has lighter restrictions than yellow, has no regions currently within it and the only one that's been in it within the last two months is Sardinia which is now a red zone. 

The key data from yesterday's pandemic update showed 13,158 new cases of Covid 19, a slight rise on the previous Sunday, but an overall figure for the previous week of 92,757, a drop of more than seven thousand from the previous week.

Italy's vaccine supplies have been boosted in the last few days with several million doses expected to arrive this coming week and a further 15 million during the month of May. The daily vaccination numbers have seen a significant jump in recent days as well: yesterday for example there were 496,893 jabs carried out, the highest number so far. Around 17.5 million Italians have now received at least one jab and 5 million of those have completed their vaccination cycle of either two jabs or a single shot of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. 

In other news, the latest Italian town to offer homes for the nominal price of €1 is Castiglione di Sicilia, a hill town in the Metropolitan City of Catania province. As always there are certain caveats and conditions attached to the offer; around 900 abandoned homes are up for grabs for "as little as €1" in attempt to breathe new life into the local economy where the population has dwindled to 3,000, something like an 80% drop over the course of the last century. 

Another story comes from the Sardinian island of Budelli where the one permanent resident is sadly being evicted after acting as custodian for the last 30 years. The story of 81 year old Mauro Morandi is surely worthy of a film; originally from the northern Italian city of Modena, he was on an expedition to the South Pacific when his yacht ran into trouble just off Budelli in 1989 and as chance would have it, this was the moment when the previous caretaker of the island was about to retire. On a whim, Morandi decided to take over the role and has been there ever since. Unfortunately, the island, one of several in the pretty La Maddalena Archipelago has protected status and some environmental work is required which means his home, an old World War Two bunker can no longer be used.

Today's photos come from the central Italian region of Umbria and one of its most historic towns. Spoleto is a hill town that you can explore via a funky system of escalators that has its own map, a bit like an underground train system does. The escalator system allows you to reach such diverse places as the Rocca Albornoziana fortress at the top of the town's hill and the Roman Theatre towards the bottom which was the scene of an horrific incident in the 14th century when hundreds of supporters of the Guelph political faction were slaughtered on its steps. 

Spoleto is positively bristling with sights from beautiful piazzas to museums and its beautiful main square: Piazza del Duomo, home of its cathedral. 

That's all from me for today; let's hope people remain sensible with so many restrictions being eased and that the vaccination rollout can accelerate and keep the pandemic in check. 

​Buona giornata