Updated October 21, 2026
If you've noticed the strike notice at the top of our site these days, here's why. Since early October, Southern Italy, and Puglia in particular, has been going through some difficult weeks: truck drivers and farmers are protesting high fuel prices and rising costs, with road blockades and pickets that slow down everything that travels by road. Parcels included.
What's happening
On October 6 the diesel excise discount ended, and the average price rose to around €2.30 per liter. For people who make a living in transport and farming, that means working at a loss. So, first in Calabria and then in Puglia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily, truckers and farmers took to the streets: pickets at toll booths, slowdowns on main roads, convoys of tractors and trucks. In Puglia the protests reached the Foggia and Bari areas, and our own province of Brindisi too.
In the same weeks, a protest by former Ilva steelworkers outside the Eni refinery in Taranto, which supplies much of Southern Italy, stopped the fuel tankers for several days. As a result, in many towns in Salento and in the Brindisi and Foggia areas, gas stations ran out of gasoline and diesel, with lines that lasted hours. In some towns, finding fuel is still not a given.
The Italian government has announced new funds for the trucking industry and a new meeting with the trade associations at the Ministry of Transport on October 27. In Puglia some blockades have been eased, but the protesters have made it clear that they may resume if no concrete answers arrive. Meanwhile, Poste Italiane has temporarily suspended its parcel service in five southern regions, Puglia included.
Why we won't blame the protesters
We're an artisan workshop in San Vito dei Normanni: we pay for fuel too. The people standing at the toll booths today are the same people who deliver our parcels every day, or who tend the olive trees all around us. Things are hard for everyone, and those who are protesting do so because they can no longer get by. It's not our place to say who's right, but we can say that we understand.
We only ask for a little extra patience if your parcel travels more slowly than usual: right now, delivery times don't depend on us or on the courier.
What we're doing for your order
- We're working ahead. We're doing everything we can to ship our laurel wreaths well before the estimated times shown on the site, to win back the margin the blockades might eat up on the road.
- We ship as soon as your parcel is ready, making the most of every day the roads are clear, ahead of any new days of protest.
- We're easy to reach. If you have a question about your order, message us and we'll tell you where it stands.
Got a date that can't move?
If you need your wreath for a graduation ceremony that's already scheduled, order as soon as you can and message us on WhatsApp with the date: we'll find the best solution together and tell you honestly what we can guarantee.
We'll update this article if the situation changes. Thank you for your understanding, and our thoughts go to everyone who is out on the road these days.
The I Luminari 3D workshop
Sources (in Italian): Il Post, Il Fatto Quotidiano, ANSA, TorreSette.