While such measures have prompted protests in France and divided Americans, Italians are enjoying a season of rationality under Prime Minister Mario Draghi. ORBETELLO, Italy — On Friday, the first day that Italians needed to present a nationwide health passport for access to indoor dining, museums, gyms, theaters and a wide range of social activities, Margherita Catenuto, 18, from Sicily, proudly showed a bar code at the Capitoline Museum in Rome certifying that she was vaccinated.“It’s like showing you have a conscience,” said Ms. Catenuto as she walked in. “You do it for yourself, and you do it for others. It’s very sensible.”Similar measures to stem the coronavirus pandemic have prompted large protests in France and bitterly split Americans between cities that will require vaccine passes, like New York, and entire parts of the country that consider even masks an affront to their rights. But Italians have mostly greeted their new Green Pass with widespread acceptance and, after some compromises, near political consensus. After a long populist period that prized anti-establishment fervor and viral propaganda over pragmatism and expertise, Italians are suddenly enjoying a high season of rationality.“For things to get better, get vaccinated and respect the rules,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the most unapologetically establishment prime minister in Europe, told reporters on Friday before Parliament’s summer recess. On Friday, signs outside movie theaters reminded patrons to bring their Green Passes — proof of a vaccination, a negative test swab taken in recent days or proof of a past virus infection — which they can download or print out. Restaurant workers checked certificates along with temperatures and reservations. Tourists can provide proof of vaccination with a vaccine accepted by European Medicines Agency.“Do you have a Green Pass,” a hostess at an Orbetello sushi restaurant asked Laura Novelli as she showed up for lunch with a friend. She didn’t, nor did she have a negative swab test result or proof that she had recovered from Covid. “I didn’t even think about it,” the 26-year-old waitress told the hostess who turned her away with a shrug. The notion that Italy under Mr. Draghi is doing reasonable things to help bring Italy out of the pandemic and into recovery has translated into broad support for what is now Europe’s most expansive measure in countering the spread of the Delta variant. A recent poll published in Italy’s largest newspaper, Corriere della Sera, showed that 66 percent of Italians support the Green Pass, and populist leaders who once cast doubt on vaccines have largely gotten with the program.“Having a reasonable leader helps, but I think Italians were reasonable in this crisis from the very beginning,” said Ferruccio De Bortoli, a columnist and former editor of the newspaper. He added that “this goes against the myth of irrational Italians.
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