Late last night, Monday, May 11th, FVG’s governor Massimiliano Fedriga announced: “Our request was accepted by the Italian government and starting May 18th all businesses will be allowed to reopen!”
Even if you don’t follow the local politics, you probably know by now that each of Italy‘s 20 regions has its own government, and each of those has the power to adapt national lockdown rules within their own territory. Not only that, sometimes rules differ by the comune (for example, parks were closed in Udine at the bringing of lockdown while they were still open in Trieste).
Friuli Venezia Giulia has been no exception. Fedriga was one of the first governors of Italy to decide on complete lockdown before FVG had its first cases. And the leitmotif in all of his recent speeches has been “we closed early to open up earlier.”
On Saturday, May 9th, cities throughout Italy saw business owners take to the streets in a desperate attempt to persuade the government to ease the lockdown rules and let them reopen.
However, until the beginning of this week the central government was unmoved. Late Monday, May 11th the Italian government confirmed that local governments can opt to relax the rules faster than the ministers in Rome suggest, which means starting May 18th most businesses in those regions will be be given the go-ahead.
Which businesses will reopen on May 18th in FVG?
Restaurants
Bars
Hairdressers
Libraries
Museums
Local shops of all kinds (no longer just supermarkets, pharmacies and other designated retailers).
Masks and social distancing will remain a must.
It is not clear yet, but FVG will probably do away with “autodichiarazione” forms to justify outings. As always, we’ll just have to wait and see.
By In Trieste
