FIUMICINO, Italy, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Nearly three months after closing its border to all but essential travel, Italy partially reopened Wednesday. But few took advantage of the eased travel restrictions on the first day.

Italy announced last month it would lift travel restrictions for travelers from the visa-free Schengen area, as well as the United Kingdom and Ireland. Additionally, people were allowed to move freely within Italy.

The step is part of a wider strategy to help restart the Italian tourism industry, which was shuttered along with the rest of the Italian economy at the start of the national coronavirus lockdown March 10.

According to officials from the Rome airport operating group, ADR, the airport based in the town of Fiumicino, west of Rome, is expected to host around 10,000 travelers on Wednesday. That compares to around 110,000 for a typical mid-week day in June a year ago. Officials said the airport expects to see around 100 flights take off or land Wednesday, compared to around 1,000 flights on a typical day a year ago.

Assaeroporti, an industry group, estimated that at least 45 million fewer passengers arrived in Italian airports between March and May than would have arrived if the coronavirus pandemic had never happened.

One piece of positive news for those hoping for an uptick in arrivals in the coming days and weeks: none of those arriving at Fiumicino Airport Wednesday said they were nervous about the coronavirus.

"I have wanted to come back to see my family since this started and today was the first day I could do it without having to spend my entire two-week visit under quarantine," Camilla Giorgio, an Italian working for the Red Cross in Switzerland, told Xinhua.

Jesse Hanich, a Swiss student who had been home during a study-abroad program in Rome when the lockdown went into effect, told a similar story.

"I've come back to collect the belongings I left behind in Rome," Hanich said in an interview, adding that he still has nearly two months left on his apartment contract. "I didn't schedule a return flight yet. I'll stick around for a while to see how it goes."

Giulia Cutili, who was passing through Rome on an itinerary between Sicily and Munich, Germany, said she'd made several attempts to visit her parents who were working in Munich.

"I tried twice in April but both times they sent me back home from the airport in Sicily," Cutili told Xinhua. "I still don't know if I will make it all the way through, but this is the first time I made it as far as Rome."

According to Ivan Bassato, operating director for ADR, easing restrictions for travelers to and from Italy has an important symbolic value for the country, even if the number of travelers starts out small.

"Having a working system for air travel is an essential part of a modern economy," Bassato said in an interview. "We were open during the entire lockdown, though there were very few flights. Now there are more, and we hope the numbers will rise and things will slowly get back to normal."