La mia amata città italiana si è trasformata in un inferno per i turisti. Dobbiamo davvero viaggiare in questo modo?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/09/opinion/italy-tourists-bologna-mortadella.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HE4.hWy6.cHnCV69Pi6CP
di newzee1
28 commenti
When you place traps, expect them to be filled.
We have neoliberalised our city centres.
Our homes are now scratch cards for property speculators, and our streets are tourist theme parks.
Yes.
Thumbnail is a nightmare fuel o_O
Lots of foreigners coming for “spaghetti bolognese”, going back home disappointed because there were no spaghetti, nor milk cream in the ragù /s
But yeah, I remember when I decided to make use of the government bonus for inland holidays in 2020 and I spent almost 3k (2 people) in Emilia Romagna (I visited and stayed in Parma, Modena, Bologna, Imola, Reggio Emilia and Piacenza) and realised something I had already suspected for quite a long time. Our country tourism is targeted toward Americans: they don’t know shit about cost of living, nor they have any kind of self respect so paying 80€ for a gondola tour or 5€ for a coffee in Rome is totally ok. It’s impossible to enjoy Italian holidays as an Italian if your destinations are cities.
Edit: I add this, so it doesn’t look like my holiday lasted long only because I put several towns in the list (most of them are small and I went to a few of them because my grandmother grew up there):
It was an 8 days trip.
Come to poland. We even fumigate spaghettis.
There are billions now with the resources to travel. Billions willingly sucked in by the ‘cultural experience’ delusion. Billions sucked in by the bizarre social cache tourism still holds for many. Most tourism is vulgar – to use a deeply unfashionable term.
Only way to keep sane is to see it as just another economic transformation in history. Venice was fishing, then trade, then empire, now plastic gondolas and gelato.
It’s not ‘must we travel like this’, it’s ‘must we live like this’ and the answer is no, we do not have to but we (collectively) want to. For every person bemoaning the crush of two-dimensional tourists there is another person rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of fleecing said tourists and then retiring somewhere without tourists.
I get what she’s saying, but I really feel that every article like this should first come with a one-paragraph description of what the author did on their last holiday.
You can always move away to a place that you find less crowdy. There are ,by result ,the majority of citizens of the city, that believe that the city is a better place to live now. Greater economic wealth, more alive, with greater opportunities and value. By result, because nobody was forced to rent his apartment, or open a new store, or sell his property, etc. They wanted to do it. They chose to do it. It is an opportunity for them. Their lives are better now.
Tourists are the new pest. I was in Tallinn last week, and apparently Tallinn showed up in Lonely Planet and [Booking.com](http://Booking.com) websites a little too often. The old downtown is packed with tourists, often in groups with a tour guide. A beer costs 8 euro and you see “amber”, “liquid gold” and “souvenirs” signs everywhere.
In five years Tallinn will be like Amsterdam and Venice, and the average Estonian will hate these people that stole their beautiful city centre.
While I understand the frustration (my city is experiencing it as well) this is the result of decades of countries promoting themselves as tourist destinations. “Come visit us, see the sites, experience the history, enjoy the cuisine, mingle with friendly natives”. And natives were happy with tourists bringing in money, they were happy to open new hotels, restaurants, organize tours…. But now it’s “there’s too many tourists, they are ruining everything, they are like a locusts that devour everything in their path, entire city is just hotels and restaurants and everything is designed to cater to them”.
Oh no, the poor are able to travel and visit other cultures. Someone please stop this!
I empathize with the author, but to the question
>Must we really travel like this?
the answer is yes.
Either you make traveling a thing for the elites, or *lowest common denominator* tourism is what you’ll get.
I visited Bologna in 2017. I stayed in Milan at an Airbnb apartment, then went to Bologna for a day trip. I didn’t know what mortadella was, but I ate pizza somewhere around the two towers and a lot of gelato because it was a hot June day. Did I do something wrong? (apart from using Airbnb which is a mortal sin but I didn’t know that back then)
Yeah well. I used to feel sorry for these places but only until I realized how much money they rake in and how much they rip tourists off. Everything is overly expensive and designed for tourists only. This didn’t just “happen” overnight nor is it the tourists’ fault. It was a conscious political decision and a steady years long process. If you decide to make tourism your main industry that’s what happens. Sorry but you can’t have both peaceful cities and cash factories. It just doesn’t work that way.
This is so ridiculous. Whoever lives in bologna knows that apart from a very specific area in the city centre that is a de facto Disneyland for tourists, the quadrilatero, the city is still super livable
a not insignificant amount of blame can be put on ‘your beloved city’ in how they handle tourism. Most are desperate for money and continue to push for more and more tourists and associated businesses. Blaming the tourists is like blaming the pigs on their way to the slaughter. The city and country have a huge role to play here… they issue licenses, they mange accomodation issues… they work with the tour companies
Instagramable massive tourism changes a city deeply. Porto is one of those and has long term impact in the cost of living as governments are clueless to how to manage this and started by rubbing their hands thinking about the income. Cities loose their character as they offer the same stuff everyone else does. Coffee becomes starbucks, eating becomes burger king or macdonalds, non fast food restaurants are non local now and there are foods from all around the world. What’s the point in visiting a country where you can’t find local businesses to experiment the products and culture? Even the souvenirs are the same everywhere.
Money ruins everything
TL;DR: lets keep tourism to the rich
Well how bout no?
Like what?
People often underestimate the “tourism lobby.” they are as strong and influential as farmers.
A whole class of people living well from selling overpriced services/food, short-term renting
Not much can be done about it.
Every tourist article ever. Yeah no shit tourists are gonna be annoying, because they’re pouring money into your city. That’s the trade off.
Deal with it or switch your industry focus.
Being a traveller is harder than being a tourist and at the end of the day most people care more about pictures than anything else.
BTW this is an almost month old article that raised some discussions in Italy, including the clumsy answer of the Mayor of Bologna, to which the author replied, and a bunch of other articles in the summer news.
Make it compulsory to take a written test for at least one member of a family to have access to some places.
If they fail the test they cannot visit.
“I’m a tourist, I hate tourists!”
This is the equivalent of ranting about traffic while driving a car.
Here’s what I try to do:
* Stay for longer than just a day to allow myself to slow down, look around and get out of the beaten path.
* Eat local. Drink local. Shop local. In many places there are awesome farmers’ markets, second hand shops, cafés run by families. What’s the point of getting a BigMac if I can have it virtually anywhere?
* Vibrant city centers are great, but small towns are sometimes less prone to globalization.