Truck drivers on Friday ended protests that have paralysed southern Italy for the past week as the last picket lines in Campania were dismantled, allowing deliveries to supermarkets to resume.
The protests had left parts of southern Italy facing shortages of food and fuel, impacting the production of pasta and mozzarella. They ended after the government announced aid to cope with high fuel prices.
"I joined the strike out of solidarity with my colleagues, even though I personally did not have to, and I am glad things are now getting back to normal," Vincenzo Parisi, a haulage company owner from Naples, told AFP.
"We already started making deliveries again yesterday. Of course, getting back up and running after a week-long stoppage is not easy, but we are working hard to restock supermarkets as quickly as possible, so people can find the shelves full again."
The government on Thursday approved a financial package of 175.2 million euros ($196.2 million) for truck drivers, farmers and fishermen hit by soaring fuel prices linked to the war in the Middle East.
"Fuel prices have risen dramatically since last year. Diesel that cost us 1.60 euros a litre a year ago now costs 2.40 euros," Parisi said.
"That is simply too much, especially because fuel is not the only thing that has become more expensive. All our other costs have gone up as well, and everything connected to transport now costs more."
Giuseppe Richichi, president of AIAS, an association representing Sicilian truck drivers, said the government was "only giving us money it already owes us".
He said he would not be striking again but "not because I think the government's measures will help us".
"We realised we were only hurting half of Italy, our half, the south," he told AFP.
"The country was being split in two, between people who were struggling to find food and fuel and others in the north who were barely affected at all."