My trip to Italy is in two weeks – why hasn’t it been cancelled?

Simon Calder answers your questions on refunds, beer festivals and travelling during the pandemic

The country is enacting draconian lockdown laws to stop the virus spread (iStock)

Q There are just 15 days to go until our holiday in Italy and the travel company is refusing to confirm that it is cancelled. This leaves us and hundreds of others in limbo. Their social media channels have been shut down and only a handful of staff are on hand to cope with calls. Can you help?

Name supplied

A There have been enough travel crises over the years for a reasonable system to emerge. For example, when the Foreign Office warned against travel to Sharm el Sheikh in November 2015, following a suspected bomb attack on a Russian passenger jet, airlines and holiday companies instituted a series of “rolling cancellations”. First, everything up to the end of the year; then through till the February half-term; then Easter 2016…