The sign that hangs at the entrance of the Osteria, as well as at the entrances of all possible other bars and restaurants in the area, gives the official all-clear: To enter this restaurant, a Green Pass is not required. Immediately below, however, an addition in smaller font specifies: If you want to take a seat at a table in the interior, you must very well present a Green Pass – proof of a vaccination, a survived Covid infection or a negative test in the past 48 hours.
“At the moment we have no problems with it,” says Matteo, the host of this osteria under a road bridge in a less touristy area of Genoa: “In the heat at the moment, people are all sitting outside anyway.” And the area, separated from the parking lot by oleander bushes in terracotta pots, fortunately offers enough space to entertain all guests who come that evening in the open air – without first asking for a digital safety certificate. “What to expect in autumn,” says Matteo, “that is a completely different question.”
He doesn’t want to read his last name in the newspaper, “not that the Carabinieri will visit me”: The debate about the Italian Green Pass is now politically charged. Proof has been mandatory since last weekend in order to enter swimming pools, fitness studios, museums or theaters – or to take a seat at a table in indoor restaurants. The innkeepers, however, as the Interior Ministry made clear after angry inquiries, are not obliged to check the respective ID in addition to the Green Pass to ensure that no one with a third-party vaccination certificate sneaks into any delicacies.
In view of the current heat, it is currently easy to dodge the tables in the outdoor area anywhere in the country. Nevertheless, an industry association is already complaining about a decline in sales in the catering industry. Mainly because families with unvaccinated children – the green pass requirement applies from the age of twelve – would now forego going to a restaurant together.
Better to go broke than sick
Compared to neighboring France, however, where the new rules are sometimes stricter, the expressions of displeasure in the country are currently still limited. There were protests by employees whose employers are now insisting on the Green Pass for visiting the company’s canteen. And teachers who come up against government plans to make the Green Pass mandatory for them to enter school buildings after the holidays.
For Matteo, the host of the Genoese Osteria, it’s about existential issues. He and his employees are all vaccinated, no question about it. But even more than the virus, he is afraid that in the autumn, when more guests crowd in, his sales will collapse: “The idea of getting sick frightens me less than the prospect of going broke and no longer being able to look after my family . “
Inside, after paying at the cash register, he bought another grappa without asking for the Green Pass: it is not compulsory for standing and drinking at the counter.