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TRAVEL: Do you still have to quarantine if you arrive in Italy after January 6th?

Italy says that everyone arriving from overseas between December 21st and January 6th has to quarantine. But what does that mean for people arriving from January 7th onwards?

Published: 14 December 2020 14:43 CET
Updated: 5 January 2021 14:24 CET
TRAVEL: Do you still have to quarantine if you arrive in Italy after January 6th?
Travellers at Rome's Fiumicino airport. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Italy's government imposed extra travel restrictions over Christmas and New Year to discourage unnecessary holidays amid concerns that the coronavirus infection rate is not falling fast enough.

From December 21st to January 6th, anyone who arrives in Italy from overseas – no matter which country and no matter their nationality – must observe a 14-day quarantine.

With the rule about to expire on January 6th, what happens after that?

Could you potentially avoid quarantine by arriving in Italy just one day later?

The answer, the government has confirmed, is no. 

The latest emergency decree of December 3rd, which set Italy's Christmas travel rules, states that quarantine applies to everyone who has stayed or transited through another country at any point between December 21st and January 6th (full text here: see article 8, paragraph 7).

As the Interior Ministry subsequently clarified in a circular, that means that people who leave Italy before December 21st or return after January 6th must also quarantine.

In other words, if you return to Italy on or after January 7th having spent part or all of December 21st-January 6th abroad, you will still have to quarantine. 

The only exceptions are for people who had to leave Italy for essential reasons, including work, health, study or emergencies.

If you left Italy for any other purpose, such as tourism, you'll have to quarantine whatever your reasons for returning to Italy, the Health Ministry's website states. 

Translation: an Italian resident can't choose to go skiing in Switzerland or visit friends in Spain, for example, then return to Italy and hope to avoid quarantine by saying they need to be back here for work.

That's because the main purpose of the rule seems to be to make taking a vacation abroad as difficult as possibly without actually introducing a travel ban.

However, an Italian resident who has to go to France for work or urgent surgery, for example, would be allowed to return to Italy without quarantining – but they do have to get a coronavirus test 48 hours before they come back. (Find further example scenarios on the Foreign Ministry's website.) 

There are other exemptions from both quarantine or testing for cross-border workers, healthcare workers, diplomats and people transiting through Italy via their own transport: find more details here.

The rule primarily affects people entering Italy from another EU member state, a country in the Schengen zone or the UK, since travellers from these countries would not usually be subject to quarantine.

Arrivals from any other country have to quarantine for 14 days regardless, not only during the Christmas period. Travellers from the UK should also be prepared to find themselves subject to different rules after the Brexit transition period ends on December 31st.

REMINDER: What Brits in Europe need to know about travel after December 31st

The Local was alerted to the situation one of our readers, who was advised by an Interior Ministry representative that he would still have to quarantine if he returned to Italy after January 7th.

“I was originally planning on leaving Italy on the 19th of December and returning on the 9th of January but will now have to, unfortunately, return on the 27th of December in order to do the mandatory 14-day quarantine before starting work,” he told The Local.

It is not clear how long the rule will remain in place: Italy's current decree expires on January 15th, though the government may revise the rules at any point before then.

Find The Local's latest updates on Italy's travel rules here.

Member comments

  2. like this:
    Based on your answers, you can enter Italy. Read carefully the information provided below.

    You must fill out a self-declaration.

    Since you chose to enter/return to Italy starting from January 7 2021 onwards, kindly note that:

    1. If you enter/return to Italy after January 6 2021, after a stay or transit in a Country listed in List C between December 21 and January 6 (click on the blue button on top of the page to check the Lists of Countries and territories), for reasons other than those indicated in article 6 paragraph 1 letters a), b) or c) of Prime Ministerial Decree of December 3 2020 (i.e. proven work reasons, health, absolute urgency);

    You must self-isolate for 14 days.

    2a). If you enter/return to Italy after January 6 2021, after a stay or transit in a Country listed in List C between December 21 and January 6, for proven work reasons, health, absolute urgency (as an example, you went from Rome to Paris for a short business trip and now you are going back to your home in Italy, or you must enter Italy from Bulgaria due to a scheduled surgery for which you will have to stay in Italy for about 10 days);

    or

    2b). If you enter Italy after January 6, 2021 from a C-List Country where you reside, without further stays or transits in other Countries in the previous 14 days;

    You must prove that you have undergone a molecular or antigenic test carried out by means of a swab, in the 48 hours before you arrive, with a negative result.

    In either case, as soon as you enter the national territory, you must inform your Local Health Authority of reference. From December 10, if you are unable to undergo a molecular or antigenic test within 48 hours prior to entering Italy, once in Italy you must self-isolate for 14 days.

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TRAVEL NEWS

What will Europe’s EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU's Entry & Exit System (EES) of enhanced passport checks will usher in big changes for travellers - here we answer readers' questions on the position for dual nationals.

Published: 22 April 2024 17:10 CEST
What will Europe's EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU is preparing, after many delays, to introduce the EES system for travel in and out of Europe.

You can find a full explanation of how it works HERE, but in essence it is an enhanced passport check – registering biometric details such as fingerprints and facial scans and introducing an automatic calculation of how long you have stayed within the EU/Schengen zone in order to detect ‘over-stayers’.

And it’s already causing stress for travellers. We asked readers of The Local to share their questions here – and one of the biggest worries was how the system will work for dual nationals ie people who have a passport for both an EU country and a non-EU country.

EES: Your questions answered

EU passports 

One of the main purposes of EES is to detect ‘over-stayers’ – people who have either stayed in the EU longer than their visa allows or non-EU nationals who have over-stayed their allowance of 90 days in every 180.

As this does not apply to EU nationals, people travelling on an EU passport are not required to do EES pre-registration and will continue to travel in the same way once EES is introduced – going to the ‘EU passports queue’ at airports, ports and stations and having their passports scanned as normal.

Non-EU 

Non-EU travellers will, once EES is up and running, be required to complete EES pre-registration.

This means that the first time they cross an EU/Schengen zone external border they will have to go to a special zone of the airport/port/terminal and supply extra passport information including fingerprints and a facial scan.

This only needs to be done once and then lasts for three years.

Non-EU residents of the EU/Schengen zone

This does not apply to non-EU citizens who are permanent residents of an EU country or who have a long-stay visa for an EU/Schengen zone country – click HERE for full details.

Schengen zone passports/Irish passports 

EES applies within the Schengen zone, so people with Swiss, Norwegian and Icelandic passports are treated in the same way as citizens of EU countries.

Ireland and Cyprus are in the EU but not the Schengen zone – these countries will not be using the EES system at their borders, but their citizens are still EU citizens so can continue to use EU passport gates at airports and will be treated the same as all other EU citizens (ie they don’t have to do EES pre-registration).

OK, so what if you have both an EU and a non-EU passport?

They key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any of the rules on immigration – it’s just a way of better enforcing the rules that are already in place. 

Therefore the rules for dual nationals remain as they are – for most people which passport to travel on is a matter of personal choice, although Americans should be aware that if you have a US passport and you are entering the USA, you must use your American passport. 

But it’s also important to remember that the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’ – therefore if you present an American passport at the Italian border, you will be treated exactly the same as every other American, there is no way for the border guard to know that you are also Italian.

Likewise if you are a UK-Germany dual national and you travel back to the UK on your German passport, you can expect to be treated the same as every other German at the border, and might be asked for proof of where you are staying in UK, how long you intend to stay etc – the system has no way of knowing that you are also British. 

Therefore whether you have to complete EES pre-registration or not is entirely a matter of which passport you are travelling on – if you use your EU passport you won’t have to do it, if you use your non-EU passport you will.

It’s also possible to use two passports for the same trip – so let’s say you’re travelling from Spain to Canada – you enter Canada on your Canadian passport, and show your Canadian passport again when you leave. However, once you re-enter Spain you show your Spanish passport in order to benefit from the unlimited length of stay.

If you’re travelling between France and the UK via the Eurostar, Channel Tunnel or cross-Channel ferry, you need to remember that the Le Touquet agreement means that French passport checks take place in the UK and vice versa. You can still use both passports, but you just need to keep your wits about you and remember to hand the French one to the French border guards and the British one to British guards.

In terms of avoiding immigration formalities using two passports is the most efficient way for dual nationals to travel, but some people prefer to stick to one passport for simplicity, or don’t want to keep both passports together in case of theft.

Basically it’s a personal choice, but you just need to remember that you will be treated according to the passport that you show – which includes completing EES pre-registration if you’re showing a non-EU passport.

It’s also worth remembering that if the changes do cause border delays (and there are fears that they might especially at the UK-France border), then these will affect all travellers – regardless of their passport. 

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