Four at the table: the rule and the protests of restaurateurs

It is a question of interpretation of the rule, but for restaurateurs it is a vital difference. From 1 June it is possible to open the restaurant rooms and no longer welcome customers only in the open spaces. From a first interpretation, the rule that prevented more than four people from sitting at the table, if not from the same family unit, also seemed to have lapsed. Instead this norm remains.

In the decree on reopening approved in May there are no new provisions on the rule which therefore remains in force.

«In the yellow zone and in the white zone when you are in public places sitting at the table you can stay up to four people unless they are cohabitants or a family unit», This reports the Corriere della Sera.

For the Italian Federation of Public Businesses it is “unacceptable that, on the day when bars and restaurants can finally resume working at full capacity, there is still no clear line on the number of diners allowed at each table which now limits the number of diners to 4 in the white areas as well. a serious lack of respect towards hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, forced for the umpteenth time to improvise. We trust in an afterthought ».

The double interpretation of the rule was confusing. The ministry of Salute he clarified that even in the scenario with fewer restrictions, therefore in the white zone, no more than four can sit at the table, cohabitants excluded. From the Ministry of Regional Affairs, that of Mariastella Gelmini, a different interpretation comes instead: in the white area there would be no limitations to the tables.

For now there are only three regions in white area: Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sardinia and Molise. Next Monday Liguria, Umbria, Veneto and Abruzzo will change color. The following week it will be the turn of the Province of Trento, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont and Puglia.