Ahead of his visits to Germany, Slovenia and Greece over the next week, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio "will keep working on tourist flows" and fight "intolerable" discrimination by "certain states", Di Maio said on Thursday.
"After yesterday's meeting with the French (foreign) minister (Yves) Le Drian, we will keep working on tourist flows, also given the upcoming trips to Germany, Slovenia and Greece," Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
"Discrimination by certain states is completely intolerable and goes against the founding principles of the European Union," the post added.
On Wednesday, Austria's foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg said his country would not yet reopen its border with coronavirus-ravaged Italy, citing epidemiological reasons.
When he visits Athens next Wednesday, Di Maio plans to show Greek officials "the real figures" on the current state of the Covid-19 epidemic "in all Italy's regions", he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview on Monday.
Di Maio's visit comes after Greece extended a ban on flights from coronavirus-hit Italy and several other countries until 14 June and announced it will quarantine visitors from four northern Italian regions until the end of the month. The four regions - Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna - account for the bulk of Italy's coronavirus deaths.
As part of his drive towards reopened borders and unrestricted travel, Di Maio will visit Berlin on Friday, Ljubljana on Saturday and Athens next Wednesday.
