Foreign Office lifts advisory against travel to Italy

Travellers’ insurance should now cover them for a trip

Rome’s Trevi Fountain (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The UK Foreign Office (FCDO) has lifted its blanket advisory against all non-essential travel to Italy.

It withdrew the former warning due to “the current assessment of Covid-19 risks”.

The FCDO advice is separate to the Department for Transport’s traffic light system for international travel, which grades countries as red, amber or green depending on the risk of arrivals reimporting coronavirus infections into the UK, particularly virus variants of concern.

Instead, the FCDO assesses the risks to the traveller of falling ill while abroad, as well as other threats in terms of security, health and natural disasters.

The lifting of the travel advisory means holidaymakers should be covered by their travel insurance when taking a trip to Italy – most policies are invalidated if the FCDO advises against travelling to a certain destination.

Italy is also on the UK government’s amber list for travel, meaning returning passengers need not quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated in the UK, EU or US at least two weeks prior.

However, Italy is currently imposing a five-day quarantine on all arrivals from the UK, regardless of vaccination status.

This will remain in place until at least 30 August, with UK travellers also required to present a negative molecular or antigen test taken in the 48 hours before entering Italy.

At the end of quarantine they must take a rapid antigen or molecular swab test for Covid and test negative in order to stop self-isolating.

Children under the age of six do not need to test but are not exempt from self-isolation.

Exemptions from testing and self-isolation may apply to travellers transiting Italy for less than 36 hours and those travelling for work, health reasons or absolute necessity, for less than 120 hours.