The State Department recently changed Italy’s travel advisory status to a Level 2 Advisory. A Level 2 advisory encouraged heightened precautions for travelers for a variety of reasons, such as the threat of kidnapping or other kinds of criminal activity.
Italy’s status change is based largely on an uptick in the threat of terrorist activity in the country. The government worries that U.S. citizens might face danger in public settings, such as transit hubs, tourist destinations, and city centers, common targets for terrorists.
Some blame for the change might come out of the recent Italian elections, which saw the far-right candidate, Giorgia Meloni, win the election for the prime minister position. Far-right leadership often embraces extreme positions and can encourage, either directly or indirectly, violent action.
The U.S. State Department maintains a list of all of the other countries in the world. Each country gets assigned a 1-4 rating related to Americans traveling there.
A Level 1 is the least dangerous and simply advises normal precautions, while a Level 4 is the most dangerous and the government actively discourages travel there. Ukraine, for example, gets a 4 because of the active military conflict there.