VERY thoughtful and beautiful! What a heartwarming true story. We are all responsible for every place we stay in, no matter how short or long. This type of respect needs to be taught at home and at school. I think we need a lot more of those "Man with the Dog" to remind us how to be better and more conscious citizens of the world. Thank you Eric!
This is a great point, Maria. The values we display -- whether while traveling or in other situations -- are based on what we were taught as kids. But that fact is probably just another reason to worry, since I think the world is less and less intentional in most ways.
I love your thoughts Eric! They have the sweet melancholic sound of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. I hope it is simply our perception and there are a lot of great kids out there we just don't know. Hope for the world.
I think your dad might just have had it wrong, meaning I am lead to hypothesize that him knowing you were still an irresponsible kid, or at least an inexperienced and youthfully distracted driver at sixteen years old, he might have done better telling you to "treat it like IT'S NOT YOURS!". Perhaps there is a cultural divide between people and their cultures, one of them being self-centered, self-important, where it's about my way of gratification, and another where the good and respect of others takes precidence. Personally I think the middle road is a good one to aim for, i.e. being yourself while giving true respect to the other person, culture, or place. I love fitting in where I go, and while that's not possible in many places on the globe because 6'2" fair skinned men in many places stand out like a sore thumb, there are energetically respectful ways to achieve this I've often found. To me "going local" is precisely that, feeling the place from a neutral point of view, and doing in Rome as Romans do.
But it also takes two to tango, and some locals don't know how to be welcoming or accepting of visitors, especially the ignorant ones (those who still know little), not seeing them solely as a needed source of income, not knowing how to approach them because the language and culture gaps seem insurmountable.
Once the world becomes less authentic, more uniform, and culturally globalized, these differences might subside altogether, creating a boring tourist trap after another, solely based on preformed conceptions, spouted ad nauseam by Ai influencers.
This is a really interesting point. I personally think I would have mistreated the old Chevy no matter what. But I like the idea of a counter-intuitive warning. That probably would have worked in other contexts.
I’m nearly as tall as you are but having olive skin and dark (now greying) hair helps me fit in in many places. I’m half Anglo-American and half Dominican but I blend in across southern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa, Turkey, the Levant, the Middle East, Slavic cultures, South and Central America. I wonder if that makes locals in those places more open to me. I certainly stumble through all but three languages but I usually still feel pretty welcome.
I was a "tourist" the first time I went to Italy in 1996.
And I fell deeply, completely in love.
After that, I considered myself a "traveler".
And, most likely, I'm a time traveler because the first time I stepped off that plane, I knew I was home.
That feeling of being where I came from has repeated itself many times over the years.... with deja vu experiences occurring on a regular basis.
Fate brought me to my second home of Radda in Chianti on the 1997 trip when I randomly selected to stay in a small casa piccola on the Villa Vistarenni grounds, which is located just outside of Radda.
That trip cumulated in the meeting of people who were to become lifelong friends.
But more like family.
Back then, Radda was still pretty much the way it had been for them.... the people who had grown up there or in the area.
Small, sweet shops that met their every need were sprinkled throughout the tiny, ancient hilltop village.
You had to know somebody to be able to rent an apartment within the city limits.
Nothing much happened there.
Radda was the definition of "il dolce far niente".
It was absolute perfection.
And then Rick Steves ruined it.
Tourists started showing up in droves.
The old people in Radda who owned the big houses died and hotel chains bought them up converting them to B&Bs.
And the changes have continued ever since.
Not that anyone can stop time nor changes.
But I can attest to the fact that I do not like the new brand of tourists who don't have to invest into my second home during their short stays.
I yearn to turn back the clock, but my Radda friends/family need the tourist dollars to survive.
So, Eric, it is as you've described, my village has no place to hide.
This is very sad, Davi, and it brings me to the dilemma highlighted by the Reddit commenter I mentioned in the essay. I’m not going to compare this newsletter’s influence (or the influence of a Reddit comment) to Rick Steves. But are we all doing the same things? Shining and unwelcome light on places that should be left to those with the ingenuity to find them on their own?
I like to think that when I offer advice in these essays I’m more like friend sharing his opinions rather than a kind of travel traffic cop directing masses of tourists to places too small to handle them. But I’m sure Rick Steves has good intentions, too.
Please share your thoughts on this. I’m not sure what the answer is
And yes, any of us who share the beauty and history of Italy with others are doing the same things.
That said, I do compare my small (6 people only) Tuscany adventures (I avoid using the word "tour") to those horrendous 50-passenger bus tours.
One could be killed by those rampant groups rushing through the Florence streets!
Compared to those massive groups, I know the footprint my little group leaves is basically harmless.
My intent is to share my love of Tuscany, not to make money by unleashing a frenzied mob onto the land of my heart.
Rick Steves may have good intentions, but all his books, videos, TV shows, and tours indicate he's more interested in making money.
That said, I don't miss the irony of my position in not wanting the masses to invade Tuscany while taking people there myself.
The difference being my travelers get to do meaningful things by actually meeting the people who make the wine, the olive oil, the leather, the jewelry, the gelato, the food....
it all becomes very personal and meaningful and something that they will never forget.
I can't help but feel some level of resentment when my once quiet, rather boring, historic village has people stopping there for a day and tromping all over but never stopping to learn her fabulous history.
I think what you do, Eric, is wonderful and helpful and honest.
Yes, there is some irony there in what you do just as there is in my writing a newsletter about Italy where around 80% of the readership is outside Italy. But as a priest I know is fond of saying: Everything in moderation … including moderation.
I will say this, though: if Italy had the same number of tourists it has now but most of them came in small, curated groups we’d all be better off.
You're 100% right about students not taking care of a place as much as locals. There is't much else in common between students and tourists but that's one thing.
Any idea when that movie about 5 Terre will come out? I want to see it.
No ragazzi, no idea. Last I heard, it’s still being shopped around. It was well received when it premiered at the Tribeca FF, which should help. I’ll try to keep tabs on that and will post something when there’s news.
That trailer makes me want to see the movie. I need a gelato after this Hahaha.
I had a similar story with my first cars. The first was one my parents gave me and the worst one was one I bought. Same reaction as you about caring for them. But I don't know how you make tourists care about a place as if it was their home. It's like a disposable thing to them. I'm writing this from Spain, which has the same problem as Italy.
Eric, I just played golf with a couple who spent some time in Rome. Although they weren't the typical careless tourist, they thought the best thing they did in Rome was to go to Harry's Bar!!!! When I asked them if they had seen any of the historic places, they had no idea what I was talking about!!! What a waste...missing the magnificence of Rome!!!
Hahaha! That's hilarious and tragic! I know everyone has a right to their own tastes, but I don't know what it says about folks who come to Rome and the main thing they do is dine at a good but over-priced restaurant/bar that's an offshoot from the original in Venice.
This: “Ragazzi, we all live here. Have fun, but please throw away your trash.” It’s a sentiment that I often express to both tourists and study abroad students in our little Tuscan town. There’s a tendency for people who are “not from here” to think of these places where we live as an amusement park and it usually just takes a little nudge to remind them that they are real places.
A little nudge is right. It’s amazing how effective something so simple could be. The first few times, I half expected the kids to comment about my accent or to tell me to mind my own business, etc. But I’d say it works 80% of the time.
In an unrelated situation there was a kid, younger, maybe mid-teens, who just left bags of trash on a corner near where I live. He did it over the span of many weeks. I know his approximate age because he was caught on security footage, though his face wasn’t visible. I think he might have been staying off and on with his grandparents, who must have asked him to take the trash out and he couldn’t be bothered to go all the way to the dumpsters.
A couple of times the trash would get run over by a car and get spread everywhere. So when I’d take Mocha out I’d pick up the trash bags and throw them out. But that was clearly not a sustainable solution and I travel a lot and so some trash still became road kill.
So, inspired by my conversations with the college kids, I put up a sign saying “Friend, we all have to live here. The dumpsters are just 80 meters away. Please use them.” No impact: trash still accumulated beneath my sign.
A neighbor, a police officer, asked about the sign and I admitted it was mine. He shook his head: “No, no, no. That’s not how you do it.” So he took down my sign and put one up that read: “Bastard! We have security footage of you! You leave trash here one more time and you will regret it! Don’t be an imbecile!” He never left trash in that spot again. I guess a nudge isn’t always enough.
Context: These lemon shops seem to be all over the city center - Amalfi Coast themed (despite being in Rome) they sell lemon soap, lemonade, lemon candles, lemon oil, lemon sorbet in a lemon rind… they’re the epitome of the disneyfication of Italy aimed solely at tourists.
So insightful-- I love the shifting perspectives you bring to an issue that defies simple solutions. I was in Paris this week, and couldn't help but feel that somehow they've managed the post-Covid tourist crunch better than cities like Rome and Florence-- I'm not sure how or why. But by avoiding a mass exodus of Parisians from the city center, they've maintained a population that has a very real, ongoing stake in the community. When the transient tourists drive out the citizens, there are no stakeholders left and very quickly the people whose only goal is to exploit and profit from the place move in to fill the void. As you mentioned in your discussion of The Siege of Paradise, it's a balancing act-- and a tourist-free world doesn't work either. There are a lot of tiny towns in Marche that would be ecstatic (or as ecstatic as the marchigiani can be) to welcome a couple of influencers from the US.
"...as ecstatic as the marchigiani can be..." I love that comment!
I've noticed the difference between Paris and Rome in terms of tourist density and I'm not sure I completely understand it. France gets around 15 million tourists a year more than Italy does, but they seem to handle it better.
I think the Parisians staying in their neighborhoods are a big factor. But why do they stay when the Romans flee?
I think another big part is distribution: France has a better rail network and they do a good job of persuading people to leave Paris, whether to Provence, Brittany, the Mediterranean coast, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Lille, etc. And Paris has a much, much better metro system and it is much less centralized. So people are spread out between the Latin Quarter/Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Louvre/Arch du Triumph, Sacre Coeur/Montmarte, Pompideau, Luxembourg Gardens, etc. The distances aren't that walkable, while here in Rome the triangle formed by The Colosseum, the Vatican, and Piazza del Popolo is fairly walkable and it contains most of teh cliche' sites, and so it ends up forming a kind of Tourist Ghetto.
I think all that is correct, but incomplete. I can't think of the rest of the story, though. Do you have a theory?
A truly depressing problem. I was in Mallorca two weeks ago. Disney-fication to the max in several locations. It’s all about money, generic “shopping,” tchotchke’s. No soul, no real cafes, no *real* shops (butchers, bakers, candlestick makers), no residents in sight.
I’ve never been to Mallorca (Minorca, yes. But a decade ago). What a soul-sinking picture you paint. And I’m sure plenty of people there were living it! Yeah! We’re in Europe! OMG! Maybe it’s best that those people keep going there just so they DON’T go to more livable places.
This: "A big city like Rome can absorb much more, reinventing itself neighborhood by neighborhood. But small villages have no place to hide."
I took my son to Spain (Madrid, Toledo and Segovia) in February 2024. It was insane. Everywhere was so packed. The cities are so tiny. The tourist buses are so numerous. Especially in Toledo, which is the size of a giant's toe. There is nowhere for everyone to go. For our part, we too were daytripping on a bus, staying in Madrid as a home base. But I was ashamed, even as I was glad to finally see the places myself after years in Spanish lit and history courses. I wish we could have stayed longer.
It was strange in a way to be a different city that felt just like Florence in terms of the unmanageable tourist volume and the profanation of local culture and economy.
I hope that bigger cities can absorb the tourist numbers, but I suspect that very often they can't either. See: Barcelona, Amsterdam.
Longer trips are the purview of the well-resourced. What are the employed to do? what about families and kids? we all stay home and watch Netflix?
I do want to check out that film now about the 5 terre. Thanks for the tip.
I feel that way in Florence sometimes, but just around SMN and the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, etc. Don't you think Barcelona and Amsterdam are a little like that? Yes, Sacred Familia, Las Ramblas, the port ... those areas are crazy full. But at least in my experience, most casual tourists lack imagination and it doesn't take that much to get away from them. Am I wrong? I might be. I haven't been to Barcelona or Amsterdam in the last three or four years. But I can vouch for Rome being like that.
Of course your point about the lack of options for most folks is the unsolvable one. I don't know the answer.
I don’t think it’s necessary to spark across-the-board changes. But the more people who decide to plan trips to understand the culture better and who spend at least part of their time away from the same few tourist hotspots the better it is for them and for everyone else. Wouldn’t you agree?
Unfortunately, the thoughtful tourists are a dying breed. Everyone wants to jump in, get their photos, and get out to the next place. No worries about what mess they leave behind. What a world.
Something has to change, Nicky. Do you know the old Woody Allen line, speaking about a restaurant he used to like, “Nobody ever goes there any more because it’s so crowded”? I think some places reach a point and fall out of favor an.d then reinvent themselves. Look at Times Square or Coney Island in New York or New Orleans.
VERY thoughtful and beautiful! What a heartwarming true story. We are all responsible for every place we stay in, no matter how short or long. This type of respect needs to be taught at home and at school. I think we need a lot more of those "Man with the Dog" to remind us how to be better and more conscious citizens of the world. Thank you Eric!
Man with the dog -- the role I was born to play!
This is a great point, Maria. The values we display -- whether while traveling or in other situations -- are based on what we were taught as kids. But that fact is probably just another reason to worry, since I think the world is less and less intentional in most ways.
I love your thoughts Eric! They have the sweet melancholic sound of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. I hope it is simply our perception and there are a lot of great kids out there we just don't know. Hope for the world.
I think your dad might just have had it wrong, meaning I am lead to hypothesize that him knowing you were still an irresponsible kid, or at least an inexperienced and youthfully distracted driver at sixteen years old, he might have done better telling you to "treat it like IT'S NOT YOURS!". Perhaps there is a cultural divide between people and their cultures, one of them being self-centered, self-important, where it's about my way of gratification, and another where the good and respect of others takes precidence. Personally I think the middle road is a good one to aim for, i.e. being yourself while giving true respect to the other person, culture, or place. I love fitting in where I go, and while that's not possible in many places on the globe because 6'2" fair skinned men in many places stand out like a sore thumb, there are energetically respectful ways to achieve this I've often found. To me "going local" is precisely that, feeling the place from a neutral point of view, and doing in Rome as Romans do.
But it also takes two to tango, and some locals don't know how to be welcoming or accepting of visitors, especially the ignorant ones (those who still know little), not seeing them solely as a needed source of income, not knowing how to approach them because the language and culture gaps seem insurmountable.
Once the world becomes less authentic, more uniform, and culturally globalized, these differences might subside altogether, creating a boring tourist trap after another, solely based on preformed conceptions, spouted ad nauseam by Ai influencers.
This is a really interesting point. I personally think I would have mistreated the old Chevy no matter what. But I like the idea of a counter-intuitive warning. That probably would have worked in other contexts.
I’m nearly as tall as you are but having olive skin and dark (now greying) hair helps me fit in in many places. I’m half Anglo-American and half Dominican but I blend in across southern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa, Turkey, the Levant, the Middle East, Slavic cultures, South and Central America. I wonder if that makes locals in those places more open to me. I certainly stumble through all but three languages but I usually still feel pretty welcome.
Thanks for such a thought-provoking comment!
Wow I’m very eager to watch that Siege of Paradise film now. Great insights as usual.
It’s worth watching for sure. When I find out when it’ll be available online I’ll post a Note here.
I was a "tourist" the first time I went to Italy in 1996.
And I fell deeply, completely in love.
After that, I considered myself a "traveler".
And, most likely, I'm a time traveler because the first time I stepped off that plane, I knew I was home.
That feeling of being where I came from has repeated itself many times over the years.... with deja vu experiences occurring on a regular basis.
Fate brought me to my second home of Radda in Chianti on the 1997 trip when I randomly selected to stay in a small casa piccola on the Villa Vistarenni grounds, which is located just outside of Radda.
That trip cumulated in the meeting of people who were to become lifelong friends.
But more like family.
Back then, Radda was still pretty much the way it had been for them.... the people who had grown up there or in the area.
Small, sweet shops that met their every need were sprinkled throughout the tiny, ancient hilltop village.
You had to know somebody to be able to rent an apartment within the city limits.
Nothing much happened there.
Radda was the definition of "il dolce far niente".
It was absolute perfection.
And then Rick Steves ruined it.
Tourists started showing up in droves.
The old people in Radda who owned the big houses died and hotel chains bought them up converting them to B&Bs.
And the changes have continued ever since.
Not that anyone can stop time nor changes.
But I can attest to the fact that I do not like the new brand of tourists who don't have to invest into my second home during their short stays.
I yearn to turn back the clock, but my Radda friends/family need the tourist dollars to survive.
So, Eric, it is as you've described, my village has no place to hide.
And I will never forgive Rick Steves!
This is very sad, Davi, and it brings me to the dilemma highlighted by the Reddit commenter I mentioned in the essay. I’m not going to compare this newsletter’s influence (or the influence of a Reddit comment) to Rick Steves. But are we all doing the same things? Shining and unwelcome light on places that should be left to those with the ingenuity to find them on their own?
I like to think that when I offer advice in these essays I’m more like friend sharing his opinions rather than a kind of travel traffic cop directing masses of tourists to places too small to handle them. But I’m sure Rick Steves has good intentions, too.
Please share your thoughts on this. I’m not sure what the answer is
It is indeed a dilemma.
And yes, any of us who share the beauty and history of Italy with others are doing the same things.
That said, I do compare my small (6 people only) Tuscany adventures (I avoid using the word "tour") to those horrendous 50-passenger bus tours.
One could be killed by those rampant groups rushing through the Florence streets!
Compared to those massive groups, I know the footprint my little group leaves is basically harmless.
My intent is to share my love of Tuscany, not to make money by unleashing a frenzied mob onto the land of my heart.
Rick Steves may have good intentions, but all his books, videos, TV shows, and tours indicate he's more interested in making money.
That said, I don't miss the irony of my position in not wanting the masses to invade Tuscany while taking people there myself.
The difference being my travelers get to do meaningful things by actually meeting the people who make the wine, the olive oil, the leather, the jewelry, the gelato, the food....
it all becomes very personal and meaningful and something that they will never forget.
I can't help but feel some level of resentment when my once quiet, rather boring, historic village has people stopping there for a day and tromping all over but never stopping to learn her fabulous history.
I think what you do, Eric, is wonderful and helpful and honest.
There is no mistaking your love for Italy.
Thank you for the wonderful comment!
Yes, there is some irony there in what you do just as there is in my writing a newsletter about Italy where around 80% of the readership is outside Italy. But as a priest I know is fond of saying: Everything in moderation … including moderation.
I will say this, though: if Italy had the same number of tourists it has now but most of them came in small, curated groups we’d all be better off.
Sad sad story ... lots of people hate Rick Steves. Problem is, even more people love him.
You're 100% right about students not taking care of a place as much as locals. There is't much else in common between students and tourists but that's one thing.
Any idea when that movie about 5 Terre will come out? I want to see it.
I think the film's public release is still uncertain. But I'll try to keep and eye on it and will post something then it's available.
What a refreshing take on an important problem. Well done, as always.
I'm intrigued by that film at the end. Any idea when it'll be on streaming services?
Same question.
No ragazzi, no idea. Last I heard, it’s still being shopped around. It was well received when it premiered at the Tribeca FF, which should help. I’ll try to keep tabs on that and will post something when there’s news.
That trailer makes me want to see the movie. I need a gelato after this Hahaha.
I had a similar story with my first cars. The first was one my parents gave me and the worst one was one I bought. Same reaction as you about caring for them. But I don't know how you make tourists care about a place as if it was their home. It's like a disposable thing to them. I'm writing this from Spain, which has the same problem as Italy.
I think the car experience is almost universal, though I must say my brother didn’t fit the mould.
I’ll certainly post a Note here when I find out when and where the film will screen.
Eric, I just played golf with a couple who spent some time in Rome. Although they weren't the typical careless tourist, they thought the best thing they did in Rome was to go to Harry's Bar!!!! When I asked them if they had seen any of the historic places, they had no idea what I was talking about!!! What a waste...missing the magnificence of Rome!!!
Hahaha! That's hilarious and tragic! I know everyone has a right to their own tastes, but I don't know what it says about folks who come to Rome and the main thing they do is dine at a good but over-priced restaurant/bar that's an offshoot from the original in Venice.
Did you read the newsletter's essay, 'The Last Paparazzo' from late last year? (https://www.italiandispatch.com/p/dispatch-the-last-paparazzo). That's set in part at Harry's Bar in Rome.
This: “Ragazzi, we all live here. Have fun, but please throw away your trash.” It’s a sentiment that I often express to both tourists and study abroad students in our little Tuscan town. There’s a tendency for people who are “not from here” to think of these places where we live as an amusement park and it usually just takes a little nudge to remind them that they are real places.
A little nudge is right. It’s amazing how effective something so simple could be. The first few times, I half expected the kids to comment about my accent or to tell me to mind my own business, etc. But I’d say it works 80% of the time.
In an unrelated situation there was a kid, younger, maybe mid-teens, who just left bags of trash on a corner near where I live. He did it over the span of many weeks. I know his approximate age because he was caught on security footage, though his face wasn’t visible. I think he might have been staying off and on with his grandparents, who must have asked him to take the trash out and he couldn’t be bothered to go all the way to the dumpsters.
A couple of times the trash would get run over by a car and get spread everywhere. So when I’d take Mocha out I’d pick up the trash bags and throw them out. But that was clearly not a sustainable solution and I travel a lot and so some trash still became road kill.
So, inspired by my conversations with the college kids, I put up a sign saying “Friend, we all have to live here. The dumpsters are just 80 meters away. Please use them.” No impact: trash still accumulated beneath my sign.
A neighbor, a police officer, asked about the sign and I admitted it was mine. He shook his head: “No, no, no. That’s not how you do it.” So he took down my sign and put one up that read: “Bastard! We have security footage of you! You leave trash here one more time and you will regret it! Don’t be an imbecile!” He never left trash in that spot again. I guess a nudge isn’t always enough.
I love that story at the end... bet the guy was Carabinieri.
Polizia dello Stato. But for this kind of thing, there isn't much of a difference.
Loved this essay! For anyone on my tours this week I’ve been on a tirade about “lemon stores” in Rome so reading this was the balm I needed.
I’d love more of the overtourism conversations to be like this essay and not just about making visitors the villains and locals the saints.
Context: These lemon shops seem to be all over the city center - Amalfi Coast themed (despite being in Rome) they sell lemon soap, lemonade, lemon candles, lemon oil, lemon sorbet in a lemon rind… they’re the epitome of the disneyfication of Italy aimed solely at tourists.
So insightful-- I love the shifting perspectives you bring to an issue that defies simple solutions. I was in Paris this week, and couldn't help but feel that somehow they've managed the post-Covid tourist crunch better than cities like Rome and Florence-- I'm not sure how or why. But by avoiding a mass exodus of Parisians from the city center, they've maintained a population that has a very real, ongoing stake in the community. When the transient tourists drive out the citizens, there are no stakeholders left and very quickly the people whose only goal is to exploit and profit from the place move in to fill the void. As you mentioned in your discussion of The Siege of Paradise, it's a balancing act-- and a tourist-free world doesn't work either. There are a lot of tiny towns in Marche that would be ecstatic (or as ecstatic as the marchigiani can be) to welcome a couple of influencers from the US.
"...as ecstatic as the marchigiani can be..." I love that comment!
I've noticed the difference between Paris and Rome in terms of tourist density and I'm not sure I completely understand it. France gets around 15 million tourists a year more than Italy does, but they seem to handle it better.
I think the Parisians staying in their neighborhoods are a big factor. But why do they stay when the Romans flee?
I think another big part is distribution: France has a better rail network and they do a good job of persuading people to leave Paris, whether to Provence, Brittany, the Mediterranean coast, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Lille, etc. And Paris has a much, much better metro system and it is much less centralized. So people are spread out between the Latin Quarter/Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Louvre/Arch du Triumph, Sacre Coeur/Montmarte, Pompideau, Luxembourg Gardens, etc. The distances aren't that walkable, while here in Rome the triangle formed by The Colosseum, the Vatican, and Piazza del Popolo is fairly walkable and it contains most of teh cliche' sites, and so it ends up forming a kind of Tourist Ghetto.
I think all that is correct, but incomplete. I can't think of the rest of the story, though. Do you have a theory?
A truly depressing problem. I was in Mallorca two weeks ago. Disney-fication to the max in several locations. It’s all about money, generic “shopping,” tchotchke’s. No soul, no real cafes, no *real* shops (butchers, bakers, candlestick makers), no residents in sight.
I’ve never been to Mallorca (Minorca, yes. But a decade ago). What a soul-sinking picture you paint. And I’m sure plenty of people there were living it! Yeah! We’re in Europe! OMG! Maybe it’s best that those people keep going there just so they DON’T go to more livable places.
It’s like a virus, just keep spreading. We need some best practices, manners, respect, regard, education, humility.
Politeness is on the way out and it shows.
This: "A big city like Rome can absorb much more, reinventing itself neighborhood by neighborhood. But small villages have no place to hide."
I took my son to Spain (Madrid, Toledo and Segovia) in February 2024. It was insane. Everywhere was so packed. The cities are so tiny. The tourist buses are so numerous. Especially in Toledo, which is the size of a giant's toe. There is nowhere for everyone to go. For our part, we too were daytripping on a bus, staying in Madrid as a home base. But I was ashamed, even as I was glad to finally see the places myself after years in Spanish lit and history courses. I wish we could have stayed longer.
It was strange in a way to be a different city that felt just like Florence in terms of the unmanageable tourist volume and the profanation of local culture and economy.
I hope that bigger cities can absorb the tourist numbers, but I suspect that very often they can't either. See: Barcelona, Amsterdam.
Longer trips are the purview of the well-resourced. What are the employed to do? what about families and kids? we all stay home and watch Netflix?
I do want to check out that film now about the 5 terre. Thanks for the tip.
I feel that way in Florence sometimes, but just around SMN and the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, etc. Don't you think Barcelona and Amsterdam are a little like that? Yes, Sacred Familia, Las Ramblas, the port ... those areas are crazy full. But at least in my experience, most casual tourists lack imagination and it doesn't take that much to get away from them. Am I wrong? I might be. I haven't been to Barcelona or Amsterdam in the last three or four years. But I can vouch for Rome being like that.
Of course your point about the lack of options for most folks is the unsolvable one. I don't know the answer.
I guess ur doing ur part to make "better tourists" but man o man, this is a losing battle.
I don’t think it’s necessary to spark across-the-board changes. But the more people who decide to plan trips to understand the culture better and who spend at least part of their time away from the same few tourist hotspots the better it is for them and for everyone else. Wouldn’t you agree?
Gotta love those Civics!
Unfortunately, the thoughtful tourists are a dying breed. Everyone wants to jump in, get their photos, and get out to the next place. No worries about what mess they leave behind. What a world.
Something has to change, Nicky. Do you know the old Woody Allen line, speaking about a restaurant he used to like, “Nobody ever goes there any more because it’s so crowded”? I think some places reach a point and fall out of favor an.d then reinvent themselves. Look at Times Square or Coney Island in New York or New Orleans.
Former NY resident here … Times Square is a good example.