Empty tourist spots in Italy as holidaymakers stay home over coronavirus fears
VENICE, Milan and Rome are just some of the cities to have been deserted by tourists as coronavirus cases in Italy continue to rise.
Many of the popular attractions, which often have thousands of visitors a day, are now empty.
Images of the Colosseum in Rome, a wonder of the world which has four million visitors a year, is now devoid of tourists.
A sparse amount of travellers have been spotted walking around with umbrellas, but queues which are common are no longer there.
The city is struggling with a tourism decline as more than 2,000 cases of coronavirus are confirmed across Italy - with Rome reporting their first cases earlier today.
It follows a warning from the Foreign Office for Brits to avoid all but essential travel to ten regions in the north of the country, primarily in Lombardy and Italy, and many are told to self-isolate when returning to the UK.
According to Italy's tourism federation, Assoturismo, 90 per cent of hotel and package holiday bookings in Rome this month have been cancelled.
It isn't just Rome that is struggling - Sicily has also seen a cancellation rate of 80 per cent.
The Duomo cathedral in Milan is failing to attract visitors after it was closed for over a week. It re-opened yesterday.
Sweet shop owner Stefania Vergagu told that their shop, normally full of tourists, saw just two visitors from Milan.
They added: "There are no children and no families. Nobody is around."
Another cafe owner added that they usually see 1,000 a day enter the cafe, but this has dropped to as little as 20, while others said they were "heartbroken" over how empty there are.
It isn't just booking cancellations, but also flight cancellations, as British Airways and Ryanair cut a number of their routes to Italy because of a "drop in demand".
Venice, Florence and Turin, usually popular with tourists even at this time of year, are empty with just a few families wandering around.
Venice has already struggled following the high levels of flooding last year, which saw bookings drop by 40 per cent in December - and is now facing more problems due to coronavirus.
Jewellery seller Paola Bertoldo said it was the "last nail in the coffin" according to the .
She added: "It’s completely dead: no one comes past, the streets are empty."
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