Mattarella and Draghi are both on summer vacation in Italy.

Italy's president and prime minister have both opted for 'staycations' as the country's leaders take their annual summer leave in the lead-up to the Ferragosto holiday.

President Sergio Mattarella, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, returns to Sardinia where he holidayed in 2018 and 2019.

Last year, due to the covid-19 crisis, the president interrupted the Sardinian tradition by spending a few days in Castelporziano, not far from Rome.

Mattarella previously stayed in La Maddalena, a cluster of rocky isles in north-east Sardinia, however this year he will relax in Alghero, a nature reserve on the north-west of the island.

The president is staying in a military air force villa at Parco di Porto Conte in the heart of the reserve, about 10 km from the town of Alghero, not far from the Capo Caccia cliffs and the Grotta di Nettuno cave.

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Primer minister Mario Draghi, after holding his last meeting with the council of ministers to sign off on the new Green Pass rules, has headed for the hills of Umbria, the central Italian region north of Rome.

Draghi is taking a short vacation with his wife Serenella at their holiday home in Moiano, a village located between the hilltop town of Città della Pieve and Lake Trasimeno in the province of Perugia.

The premier has spent summer holidays in Moiano for the last 15 years and is said to be very attached to the town which is best known as the birthplace of Renaissance painter Perugino.