Italy Review Blog - Tuesday 2nd February 2021

It's day two of my new blog and I've started the day by providing an overview of the current Coronavirus restrictions on the home page. In fact I've created a new section on the home page which I'll update as and when the rules change. 

You would think with all the mass-media that exists these days it would be an easy task to find and then explain those rules but it's actually quite a complicated process with many publications slightly out of date and rules being tweaked on an almost daily basis. I'll do my best to keep abreast of any changes as they take place but feel free to chip in and comment if you're unsure over a specific rule. 

Of course, for most people reading this blog in the UK or USA for example, the current rules in Italy will be of little interest as travel from those countries is banned to a large degree. However, it does help to keep an eye on how the situation is developing. 

The latest Covid 19 figures show that there were 7,925 new cases yesterday and a total number of 447,589 people in Italy currently infected, a drop of 6,379 from the day before. It's probably a little too early to say whether or not the vaccinations are having an effect on those numbers, but as we move away from the epicentre of winter to incrementally warmer days, we should hopefully see those numbers continue to fall and at a gradually faster rate. 

There is life away from the pandemic of course; although most of us are still bound to restrictions of some kind or another, we've all found ways of adapting to life and found things to keep us occupied. On a personal note, I've had very little spare time recently as I've been making some significant changes to the whole Italy Review project. At the beginning of the year there were 36 different websites in the Italy Review family but I've now reduced that down to just three. Having all those different websites for each region, the major cities and several islands didn't provide the best possible user experience and I've been focusing on that aspect over the last few weeks. 

There are now just three websites: Italy Review, Ischia Review and Sorrento Review. On the oldest of those (Ischia Review), I've added all the written content from the former Procida Review which covered the neighbouring island. I'll gradually be adding all the Procida photos to Ischia Review and it's a similar situation with Sorrento Review, to which I've added the text from Naples, the Amalfi Coast and the island of Capri. Everything from the twenty regions, the major cities and the remaining islands is now here on Italy Review, although it'll take a good while to upload all the photos so just bear with me on that. 

In the little spare time I have at the moment I've been immersing myself in Italian culture. I currently have two books on the go: Rome - A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale, and Street Fight in Naples by Peter Robb. I'm finding the Rome book very enjoyable, informative and easy to follow while the one about Naples is slightly more obscure and I'll reserve judgement for now. I've also been enjoying the Netflix series about the Medici (series one of which is called "The Medici - Masters of Florence"), and recently finished the excellent three season series about The Borgias, starring Jeremy Irons. I also have a soft spot for the Inspector Montalbano TV series which is set in Sicily. I spent some time visiting the major filming locations there last year, including beautiful Scicli which I've chosen for today's photo. 

Scicli, Sicily