Good morning on Wednesday 21st April, the morning after the night before when two huge news stories with international ramifications broke. Almost at the same time as Derek Chauvin was being found guilty for the murder of George Floyd, the six breakaway English teams that tried to form a European Super League held their hands up and said mea culpa. Italian team Inter Milan are the latest to turn their backs on the proposed competition although Juventus and AC Milan appear to be standing their ground for the time being.
The main pandemic news is that Italy will today distribute the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine around the regions as part of its rollout program. The new vaccine will boost supplies in the country and the fact that only one shot of it is required means more people will be fully vaccinated that bit sooner. Yesterday in Italy there were 12,074 new cases of Covid 19, a reduction of just over a thousand from the previous Tuesday. A numerical trend has emerged over the last few days showing something like a 10% reduction of case numbers from the previous week. With a greater number of people vaccinated every day (321,290 yesterday), and the warmer weather just around the corner, there's great hope that the case numbers will start to fall at a faster rate. We're still not quite there yet with the weather; most of the country will enjoy long periods of sunshine today but temperatures are still down on the seasonal average. From north to south, Milan and Rome will reach no higher than 14° Celsius today, while Naples at 16° C and Palermo at 18° will show a slight increase the further south you are. The weekend should see the start of more seasonal temperatures. Today's photos come from Viterbo; this is the capital of the eponymous province which was once home to the Popes. Numerous pontiffs were elected at Viterbo's Palazzo dei Papi and the town can boast a series of beautiful Renaissance palazzi and historic piazzas. Viterbo is situated at the northern end of Lazio, close to the border with Tuscany and the sense of history hangs in the air in the rolling hills that surround the town. The area was once known as Tuscia and was the centre of the Etruscan civilisation until those nasty old Romans came along and conquered them. There are dozens of towns and archaeological sites in the area which lay testament to the Etruscan heritage: the two necropoli at Tarquinia and Cerveteri are fascinating UNESCO World Heritage Sites while Etruscan towns like Tuscania and Cività di Bagnoregio offer their own unique glimpses into the past. I'll leave you for today with some images of Viterbo and the surrounding area. I'll be back with more tomorrow. Buona giornata. Comments are closed.
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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
December 2023
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