THE ITALIAN INTERVENTION 197 impossible for the debtor to perform his service and, at the same time, for the traveller to be able to use it, if, hypothetically, it was still abstractly feasible. The exceptional nature of the circumstances – their unpredictability and indisputability –, attributable to force majeure, exempts, on the one hand, the debtor from any liability and, on the other hand, the creditor from having to compensate the debtor for damage. 2. THE INTERVENTION OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT In light of the high health risk, following the declaration of the World Health Organisation, which on 30 January 2020 defined the COVID-19 epidemic as a public health emergency of international significance, and following the Council Resolution of the Ministers of 31 January 2020, with which the state of emergency on the national territory had been declared for six months, the Italian Government intervened several times to contain the spread of the epidemic. The first intervention was Decree-Law No. 6, of 23 February, “Urgent measures for the containment and management of the epidemiological emergency from COVID-19” (modified by Law of convertion No. 13, of 5 March 2020), which implemented the first restrictions for those places where the presence of at least one coronavirus patient was detected, without knowing the source of transmission or otherwise it was not a person from an area already affected by the infection. Decree-Law No. 6 was followed by several Decrees from the President of the Council of Ministers (23 February 2020, 1 March 2020, 8 March 2020, 9 March 2020, 11 March 2020, 22 March 2020, 1 April 2020, 10 April 2020, and 26 April 2020) that implemented provisions to it. Through these, the areas subject to restrictions have been extended, as well as the various types of activities subject to suspension (travel, education, commercial activities, production activities, professional activities, and so forth). To deal with the difficulties related to the restrictions introduced, the Government intervened with Decree-Law No. 9, of 2 March 2020, “Urgent Support Measures for Families, Workers and Businesses Connected to the Epidemiological Emergency from COVID-19”, precisely to support families and businesses from the economic consequences generated by the restrictions. Of this Decree, Article 28 is of particular interest because it deals with the “Reimbursement of travel contracts and tourist packages”, also preparing the remedies for transport contracts, travel contracts and educational trips. This Article has recently been amended by Article 88bis of the Conversion into Law
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