Travel disruption recorded in Italy
Roads, rail, accommodation, evacuations and access closures, by area, in the words of the authority that announced them.
This page is assembled from the Italy area records on this site. It is not a live check: every line carries the date it was recorded, and the official source for each area is listed at the foot of the page. Those sources are the authority. In danger anywhere in the EU, call 112.
Evacuations and returns home
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No evacuation ordered.
Reports say flames came close to the accommodation buildings at Prato Lonaro but no evacuation was ordered; the buildings were monitored overnight.
Roads
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Via della Selciatella closed to traffic.
Closed from 1pm on 31 July while the Pineta della Campana fire was fought. The fire was largely out by 2 August but no reopening has been announced: check locally before using this road.
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SS 89 Garganica between Mattinata and Vieste.
A long-standing rockfall closure, unrelated to this summer's emergencies. A boulder came down onto the carriageway at Ripe Rosse near Mattinata on 5 December 2025 and Anas shut the road between kilometre 105 and kilometre 144, about forty kilometres. Regione Puglia said on 29 July 2026 that it had approved an agreement with Anas and the Agenzia del Demanio putting Anas in charge of the works on the cliff, with 1.31 million euros committed and no reopening date. No signposted alternative has been published for the whole stretch. The other road between the two towns is the SP 53 along the coast, past Baia delle Zagare and Vignanotica.
Campsites, hotels and holiday accommodation
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Campsite beside the closed road.
Reports of a campsite with hundreds of guests across Via della Selciatella. No source confirms it was evacuated.
What the authorities have said
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Island-wide fire pre-alert in Sicily.
The Sicilian regional civil protection department has been running an orange pre-alert rather than a red alert, covering almost the whole island on 2 August and all nine provinces for 4 August, with the danger rated medium across most of the territory and low in Ragusa and Siracusa. Red fire alerts on the island were a mid-July pattern, not the current one.
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Top heat-health warning for Palermo and Catania.
The health ministry's level three heat warning applies to Palermo and Catania for 2, 3 and 4 August, with perceived temperature at or above 40C. This is a heat warning, not a fire alert, and the two are easy to confuse in reporting.
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Fires still starting across the peninsula.
Another fire at Vieste on 3 August was put out quickly. The Foggia prefecture has set up a standing technical committee on Gargano fires, covering Peschici, Vieste, Cagnano Varano and San Nicandro, most of which are being treated as deliberate. Treat the peninsula as a place where a fire can start on any hot day rather than one with a single ongoing incident.
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Front reaching woodland above housing at Roio and Bagno.
Fifteen days in, the fire is still spreading. Flames are visible from the centre of L'Aquila and the front has run from Lucoli through Roio towards Bagno, into wooded ground above housing. Three Canadair and two regional helicopters were working it on 3 August, with volunteers flown in, and the regional civil protection director said the effort was aimed at keeping flames out of the inhabited centres. Showers overnight on 2 to 3 August were short and localised and did not wet the ground.
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Main fire largely extinguished, mop-up continuing.
Declared largely extinguished on 2 August; crews continued damping down on 3 August and flare-ups remain possible. Arson is suspected.
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Fire still flaring up.
Mop-up was under way on 1 August but the fire regained strength in the afternoon heat. Crews and a water-bombing aircraft remained committed.
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Houses threatened at Verbicaro.
Reports of flames reaching the edge of the Pornia district on 31 July, with crews working through the night. No evacuation order reported.
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Repeated flare-ups along the coast.
Reports of further fires at Capo Vaticano and Caria on 19 July, and continued fire activity in the area to the end of the month.
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Fire reached the edge of Bonorva on 21 July.
Four helicopters from the regional fleet worked the fire on the outskirts of the town, coordinated by the Corpo forestale station at Bonorva. Homes were not evacuated. Nothing further about Bonorva has been published since that day, and the regional civil protection service has issued no notice naming the town. Checked again on 4 August 2026.
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Repeated fires on the same stretch.
Two fires in five days took hold in scrub and reed beds between the SS18, the airport roundabout and the station. Residents left homes as a precaution on 20 July.
The fires themselves
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Daily water-bomber activity in Sardinia.
Water bombers and helicopters worked fires in the Sassarese and Nuorese on 1 and 2 August, including Bono, Bottida, Padru and Teti, with an evening callout at Ozieri. Cagliari was held at high fire danger for 2 August. No airport on either island was reported closed by fire between 1 and 3 August.
Reopened or lifted: 11 recorded items
Evacuations and returns home
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Beaches, campsites and holiday villages between Peschici and Vieste.
Cleared on 26 July as the fire reached the bays; several hundred people were moved and some were taken off the beaches by coast guard boats, with around 300 brought round to Vieste by sea and put up in council buildings. Peschici's mayor said afterwards that tourists had returned to their accommodation.
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Beach clubs, campsites and a care home at Campomarino Lido.
Beach clubs and campsites were cleared, and 21 residents of the Villa San Gerardo care home, including people with limited mobility, were moved out as the fire came close. Reported as a one-day emergency with no continuing displacement.
Roads
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A2 at Firmo reopened after the 1 August smoke closure.
Closed by highway police at 14:31 on 1 August because smoke destroyed visibility. The closure was temporary: Anas reported the A2 carrying heavy exodus traffic without incident over the 1 to 2 August weekend.
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Coast road between Peschici and Vieste (SP 52).
Closed on 26 July while the fire was burning, with local buses diverted onto the SS 89 between Peschici and Vieste. Reopened once the fire was out and traffic across the Gargano was reported back to normal on 27 July.
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SS 693 dei Laghi di Lesina e Varano at Cagnano Varano.
Anas closed a stretch on 26 July and signposted a diversion. Roads across the Gargano were reported reopened the following day; a fire flared again on the same hillside on 31 July but no further closure of this road was reported.
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SS 16 between Chieuti and Campomarino.
Closed early afternoon on 26 July because of smoke across the carriageway, and reopened the same evening.
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Earlier A2 closure between Morano Calabro and Frascineto.
The southbound carriageway was closed on 20 July for a Pollino fire, with traffic diverted at the Morano Calabro, Frascineto and Sibari exits.
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SS18 closed and reopened on 16 July.
The road was shut at Sant'Eufemia while the fire in a roadside nursery was fought, and reopened once operations finished. ANAS staff were on site.
Rail
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Tropea line running normally again.
RFI restored normal running at midday on 27 July after the two suspensions on the Parghelia to Briatico section, north of Tropea.
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Adriatic line between Termoli and Campomarino.
Suspended from around 1pm on 26 July when the fire reached the track. About 500 passengers on a high-speed train and an Intercity were held at Termoli until replacement buses arrived. Trains started moving again from about 7pm after safety checks, and the line was reported normal the next day.
Access closures: forests, beaches, trails and water
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New fires on 31 July at Vieste, Cagnano Varano and San Marco in Lamis.
Fire broke out in the Carabella pine wood behind Lungomare Europa at Vieste, next to a hotel, and some houses there were cleared. A farm stay near San Marco in Lamis was evacuated with about twenty people inside, and water bombers also worked the hills above Lake Varano. The Vieste fire was under control the same day and no road or rail closure was reported.
Where these records come from
One official source per area, as recorded with the items above.
- Sicily & Sardinia: Protezione Civile Siciliana and Protezione Civile Sardegna
- Gargano Peninsula (Puglia): ANSA
- Molise Coast and the Adriatic Route (Termoli): TermoliOnLine
- L'Aquila and Campo Felice: News Town L'Aquila
- Pollino and the A2 through Calabria: ANSA Calabria
- Tropea and Capo Vaticano: ANSA
- Nettuno and the Lazio coast: Il Granchio
- Sant'Eufemia and Lamezia Terme: CatanzaroInforma
- Bonorva and the Mejlogu: L'Unione Sarda