It was announced on Thursday (8 October) that UK travellers to Italy will now need a negative Covid-19 test on arrival in the country.

Flavio Zappacosta, manager for UK and Ireland at the Italian Tourist Board (ENIT), said: “Health and safety measures remain a key priority for visitors coming to Italy which is why Covid-19 tests are now required when entering the country.

“We believe this will help reassure British visitors intending to travel to Italy and significantly increase consumer confidence in the destination at a time when international travel is both uncertain and unstable.”

Zappacosta stressed that UK travellers were not required to quarantine on arrival in Italy.

“Travellers are not required to quarantine on arrival,” he explained. “They have the option to take a molecular or antigenic swab test 72 hours before travelling and present a negative outcome on arrival or take a test either on arrival at the airport or within 48 hours of entering Italy.

“Rome and Milan already offer free and fast testing facilities at the airport and we expect all international Italian airports to soon have testing centres in the forthcoming weeks.”

Italy also retained its travel corridor with the UK on Thursday (8 October) despite speculation that it could be removed by the British government due to rising Covid cases in Italy.

Italy’s unexpected retention of the quarantine-free travel corridor came too late to stop Riviera Travel cutting short a trip to the Puglia region because of fears of a quarantine being implemented when the party returned to the UK - read a report from the trip by TTG’s Mary Ann Pickford.