Tourists surround Rome's Trevi Fountain in 2023. The State Department last week issued a level 2 travel advisory for Italy, saying Americans should use increased caution at tourist sites and other public venues there. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)
NAPLES, Italy — Americans in Italy this summer should be more alert at tourist sites and other public venues because of the risk of terrorism, the State Department said in raising its threat assessment for the country.
A level 2 travel advisory was issued by the agency last week for Italy, which had been at level 1 along with many other European countries.
That warning also applies to churches, shopping centers, hotels, government buildings, sports arenas and other potential targets, the agency said in the Friday update to the country’s travel alert.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the alert for Italy was raised. A bump to level 2 also occurred last fall, news site The Local reported Monday.
Last summer, U.S. military bases in Italy and elsewhere in Europe briefly were put on heightened alert. There are more than 12,000 U.S. service members stationed in the country.
The U.S. rates countries worldwide for travel safety from 1, meaning “use normal precautions,” to 4, or “do not travel.” Level 2 means “exercise increased caution.”
Those assessments are periodically reviewed and updated when conditions substantially change, according to the State Department website. Other European countries that are now at level 2 include the U.K., France, Germany and Spain.
Italy is expecting a sizable increase in tourists this year due in part to Jubilee 2025, a Vatican celebration that occurs every 25 years.
Some 35 million tourists are expected to visit Rome over the year, according to Italy’s National Institute for Tourism Research.
There were no reported terrorist incidents in Italy in 2023, according to the State Department website, which did not list data for 2024.
But the country “aggressively investigated and prosecuted domestic terrorist suspects and regularly deported foreign nationals for terrorism-related security reasons” in 2023, the website said.
On Monday, Perugia police arrested a 24-year-old Italian man on suspicion of accessing jihadist websites and downloading thousands of files related to the construction of weapons and explosive devices. Italian authorities worked with the FBI to identify the suspect, Italian news agency Ansa reported.
