The centuries-old love affair between Italy and its lovers is now taking a new turn. This relationship has been greatly burdened by the increase in the number of tourists.
It seems that Italy has created a new ritual of ‘refusal’. Selfie ban on Portofino beach, cruise ship ban on entry to Venice, free one-day entry for tourists, tourist bus ban on Amalfi coast, Europe’s longest and widest ‘Spanish Steps’ Prohibition on sitting on a ladder called ‘. The list of measures to curb over tourism is long and creative.
For example, five villages in Italy’s famous coastal area of Cinque Terre, where wearing flip flops can be fined up to 250 euros.
Italy is considered the land of love and the Grand Tour, which began in the 17th century, involved mostly young Europeans. Since then it has been one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
However, with such restrictions, maybe Italy is giving a signal to tourists, maybe it has a change of heart.
Dramatically speaking, is Italy breaking up with you? And here you mean tourists. It’s obvious to us Italians that our Il Bel Pais, ‘The Beautiful Country’, wants to set some boundaries with its lovers.
“Americans ask us what time Venice closes like it’s a museum,” said Marco Gasparnetti, an angry citizen and activist. Gasparinetti hails from Venice and strives to protect the city’s sensitive creatures, both on land and in water.
According to Gusperinetti, the 50,000 citizens of Venice are very worried about the 140,000 tourists who come every day. The city has become less urban and more touristy.
“We can live with and because of tourism, but we don’t want to die because of it.”
Admitting both, he said that while tourism has significant financial benefits, it also has a significant negative impact on the environment, quality of life and day-to-day expenses.
In early May, a distraught woman with a child attacked tourists on a Vapurato, a water-based public transport.
This news was published as a headline in local newspapers. A couple of weeks ago, citizens took to the streets and protested against the five-euro entry ticket to Venice. The initiative was taken by the local government of the city of Venice as an experiment for 29 days. This entry ticket had to be purchased by anyone entering Venice before 5pm. Citizens criticized this move.
Environmental scientist and activist Jane Da Mosto called the move a ‘misconception’. As if it will cause a problem which it won’t. Writer Marco D’Aramo called it a “useless” move.
Five euros? It’s just the price of a cup of coffee.”According to Gasperinetti, this move has made the city like a cheap zoo.
Marina Lalli is the president of Italy’s National Federation of Travel and Tourism Industry. She says that tourism has increased tremendously since Covid and if it is not dealt with in a systematic way, it can create a strange problem.
“It’s a frustrating situation for the locals and the day-trippers, because it doesn’t allow tourists to freely enjoy their visit,” she says of the situation in Venice, as well as the rest of the country. As the cost of living has increased for them, finding a home has become a serious problem.
For example, last year four million tourists visited Italy’s famous Cinque Terre National Park, compared to 3 million tourists in 2022.
Francesco Villa, the mayor of Vernazza, a charming village in the Cinque Terre, says he is happy to welcome 2,500 tourists a day. The total population of this village is 750 people and tourism has made the residents rich.
But he also admits that between 2pm and 5pm, few locals can venture out of their homes.
“We can still go for a walk in the fields or in our garden.” Although it is not ideal, we accept it because apart from this one inconvenience, we have many other benefits.
Even in the picturesque town of Varnaza, each resident throws an average of two tonnes of garbage annually and the number is increasing.
“One of the priorities of the Italian government is to further promote tourism and turn our heritage into revenue,” says Italian Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche.
But she doesn’t think there are too many tourists here already. Instead they need to make the tourism sector better organized and more profitable.
“Most things in Italy are free or very cheap,” he told the BBC.
She says that ‘Italy’s Colosseum makes only a quarter of the profit of the New York Museum of Natural History.’ So that tourists come not only in summer but throughout the year.
This raises the question of whether the future residents of Vernazza will ever be able to leave their homes. And indeed, the country is being turned into a theme park.
About this she says that ‘those who say these things are just jealous of the beauty and beauty of our country.’
“We are an open-air museum, we have some of the most important UNESCO heritage sites in the world,” Santanche says.
The tourism minister also mentioned Italy’s unparalleled culture, unique cuisine, stunning nature and 5,600 small borghi (charming historic villages), saying that ‘the world wants Italy very much.’
As an Italian citizen, the Minister of Law’s statement to the world that the world loves my country so much makes me a little worried. But I also know that divorce is out of the question in the centuries-long relationship between beautiful Italy and her admirers.
This is mainly because Italy cannot afford it.
According to Santanche’s team, tourism contributes 13 percent to the country’s GDP (including direct and indirect impacts, such as hotels and rents, and impacts on all businesses that benefit from it).
Since we Italians have no choice but to save this relationship with tourists, many suggestions are under consideration. The first and most common idea is to organize and redirect the flow of tourists so that they are not all in Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre and Rome at the same time.
Marina Lalli says it’s difficult though because ‘you can’t tell someone who wants to go to Venice that they have to go to Treviso instead.’ if it wants to send them to, it should build the infrastructure of basic facilities to receive them there.
Commodity pricing is also often offered as a solution, supported by the idea that high-class, wealthy tourists spend money and don’t sit and eat on the steps of ancient churches. Neither do panini sandwich boxes and empty water bottles thrown behind their pillars. Rather, this work is done by young people and ordinary tourists. 32 million tourists are expected to arrive in Rome next year for the Jubilee, and not necessarily the rich.
“It would be crazy to lose young tourists, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot,” says Marina Lali.
“Young people come here and fall in love with Italy and its way of life and that’s what’s beneficial in the long run for our exports, our products abroad,” she says.
My hometown, Venice, has gradually adopted an experimental approach and is aware that this is not a new problem.
In a 1964 documentary, city councilor Simone Venturini says people were already nervous about tourism. Our administration is the only one who took some action about it first.
Not only did they set the entrance fees for the city, but they also supported the city guards. The city guards were a group of local citizens who roamed the busy areas of San Marco and the Rialto Bridge, telling tourists how to behave in the city and respect various restrictions, including not eating pigeons. Feeding, eating or sitting on bridges or on the steps of monuments was prohibited, nor was the use of bicycles for transportation in a city full of stairs.
Venice is also considering banning rigs and rudders. These small shops sell tiny carnival masks and plastic souvenirs that offended my grandmother’s aesthetic sense. But this was not their only thought.
“You sell garbage, and you attract flies,” Da Mosto says. He believes the city should offer better quality services to its residents and visitors.
And another thing is swimming which is prohibited here. This ban also brings a smile to my face because the people of Venice say that ‘Venice is an art city and not a beach.’
Venetian children once swam in the canals here. You can see them in the short film I Nova (They Swim), which won an award at the 1950 Venice Film Festival.
In which a bunch of these kids are happily mocking the ‘No Swimming Here’ sign and diving into the clear water. At that time the water was as clear and transparent as it was during the covid.
One of the main reasons is that Venice had 147,000 residents in 1950 and was full of children. Now the population is down by two-thirds and it’s hard not to worry about our future.
D’Eramo, author of The World in a Selfie, says the problem is that a city becomes dependent on tourism when it has nothing else to do.
He believes that if historical places have other activities and businesses like London and Paris, tourism will not be considered as important. It will just be a part of life and residents will not feel displaced or pushed away.
Gasparinetti offers a very apt metaphor in agreement. “In Venice, we have a very popular drink called spritz, which is made from one-third (wine), one-third (Aperol) and one-third (sparkling water).”
“There should be a similar formula for tourism, like the Spritz formula,” he says.
Since we’ve finally gotten down to equating tourism in Italy with cocktails, it’s time to ask the hard questions. In particular, we need to talk about who has been Italy’s most stable boyfriend, the American tourist with whom Italy has shared a long and often cinematographic love story, The Talented Mr. From Ripley’s to Anita Ekberg’s swim in the Trevi Fountain and George Clooney’s home on Lake Como.
Marina Lalli has no doubt that Italy has a love affair with the American tourist. It seems like a fantasy, but it is also a reality.
“It’s the tourist who brings in a lot of money, who spends, who wants to have fun on holiday and is therefore very important to us,” she says.
Tourism Minister Santanche goes a step further and calls it an unbridled relationship. “Come to Italy,” she says, “because I know how much you love our nation, our way of life, our food, our culture, our beauty.” I thank all Americans, because if tourism has flourished in the past year, we owe a lot to America and its citizens.
I hope the American tourists reading this are blushing right now. But what about all the other tourists in Italy? In this case, the same question provides practical, psychological and romantic answers. D’Eramo suggests that tourism should be organized and managed like any other heavy industry, as it involves infrastructure, transportation and has an impact on the environment.
Marina Lalli says that if Italians haven’t taken to the streets to protest the problem of over-tourism, as the people of the Canary Islands did a month ago, it’s because Italians are historically used to the imperfect. , and so they have a different mindset of ‘reducing the protest, and finding ways to solve it.’
And finally, Gasparetti says that tourists don’t just come to see the monuments, but to actually try to understand, respect, and ultimately love the spirit and culture of the city.
Although none of them mention turning away from tourists, in which case it is often best not to ask again. So, as long as Italy has a relationship with tourists, keep visiting.
