On Monday night, some protesters in Turin broke away from a peaceful demonstration, smashing shop windows, ransacking luxury shops and throwing petrol bombs at police officers.

Demonstrators let off firecrackers and lit flares, while police in riot gear responded with tear gas.

Several hundred protesters assembled in Milan – the capital of the Lombardy region which was the epicentre of the global pandemic in March – at the regional government’s headquarters, with some throwing stones, petrol bombs and fireworks.

Meanwhile in the southern city of Naples, thousands of people gathered in the central Piazza del Plebiscito, many calling on the regional governor to resign.

The violence was blamed on extremist agitators and police said 28 people had been arrested in Milan alone.

Protests took place in a dozen other cities, including Rome, Genoa, Palermo and Trieste.

People took to the streets after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the early closure of restaurants and pubs at 6:00 pm and shut down theatres, gyms and cinemas.

Most high schools were ordered to hold online classes and a number of regions imposed night curfews.

While an initial national lockdown earlier this year was complied with little resistance, the announcement of renewed measures has been met with immediate backlash.

Small businesses argue that they are still recovering from the first lockdown, and that more restrictions could ruin them.

The world’s first national lockdown – and one of its longest – has taken its toll, with an economy forecast to shrink by 10 per cent this year.

Trying to defuse the anger, Conte met protesters in Rome on Monday night to assure them that funds were on the way for business owners.

The government has promised financial aid to workers and businesses affected by forced closures, and relief measures were expected to be approved in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“The primary objective is to regain control of the epidemiological curve to avoid that its steady rise can compromise the efficacy of our health sector, as well as the resilience of the social and economic system as a whole,” Conte said in an open letter published on Tuesday, by Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

Italy is witnessing a resurgence of coronavirus infections, reporting on Tuesday its highest number since the beginning of the pandemic with more than 21,994 cases – double compared with the previous week.