Italy Review Blog: Monday 12th April 2021

Good morning all on Monday 12th April. It's a big day in the UK with shops reopening after the lockdown and things are looking a touch better in Italy as well. 

Yesterday Italy reported 15,746 new cases of Covid-19, a reduction of just over two thousand from the previous Sunday. The figures look even better when you compare the last seven days with the previous seven: between 29th March and 4th April there were a total of 136,223 new cases whereas in the period between 5th and 11th April (inclusive) there were 101,627. That's a 25% reduction and a good step in the right direction. 

Italy's traffic light system of restrictions has provided some further encouragement today with a number of alterations, most of which are for the better. Calabria, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany all move out of the red zone and into the slightly calmer waters of orange. In essence, in the orange zone shops can open and you don't need a reason to leave your house; the red zone being the opposite of that. The one negative here is that Sardinia has made the reverse transition from orange to red. 

The vaccination rollout continues and whilst there have been a few days where the number of jabs has risen significantly, the average amount is still somewhere around 250,000 per day. This hasn't been helped by a remarkable level of vaccination refusal in Sicily; or more specifically, refusal of the AstraZeneca vaccine reaching around 80% on the southern island region. One would hope that those jabs don't end up being wasted and are used on the millions of people that are crying out for them. 

There's a fair bit of rain around the country today and for the most part, the low temperatures continue with the brightest spark being Naples at 17° Celsius. The rest of the week should provide more sunshine but it doesn't look like it will warm up significantly until next week. 

Today's photos come from La Maddalena Archipelago in Sardinia. This beautiful group of islands is situated at the north-eastern tip of the island region and just a short hop across the water from the French-owned Corsica. Highlights of the archipelago include the main La Maddalena Island, where you'll find the majority of shops, restaurants and accommodation options, and the smaller island of Spargi with its Cala Corsara Beach, one of the best beaches in Italy. Italian Risorgimento hero Giuseppe Garibaldi called this area home after his unification exploits of the 19th century, seeing out his days on little Caprera which is connected to La Maddalena Island by a road bridge. The island group can be reached from the port of Palau on the Sardinian mainland. 

I'll be back with another blog tomorrow and until then I'll wish you all a very happy Monday.