We Need to Talk About Over-Tourism in Italy

Part 2: Florence, Venice, & Rome

Tourists are demanding more and more of Italy and behaving increasingly badly. City officials are scrambling to create measures to combat overtourism and to deal with bad behavior, while residents are protesting the decline in the quality of life in their city-centers.

Florence:

Earlier this year, the director of the Galleria dell’Accademia said tourism has turned Florence into a “prostitute”. Strong statement! What’s going on?

Problem One: Panino Porn

There’s a panino place in Via dei Neri in Florence that somehow became known as the best sandwich place in Italy. Originally a hole-in-the-wall, like most traditional panini places, it expanded after getting famous and now has four storefronts on both sides of the street. The lines on each side of the street merge in the middle in high season creating total blockage.

I’m not on TikTok, but looking to see what kind of fuss is being made about this panino place on TikTok, I stumbled onto this kid, who looks no older than 18, and who is apparently a food influencer. He has over a million subscribers and says fuck a lot when describing what he’s eating.

I tried a panino here once, and it was okay. Not remarkable. What’s odd to me (and to all others I know who live in Florence) is that we can get panini with the same focaccia and same ingredients at many places in the city, without any lines.

None of us would wait in the ridiculous line for this place. You don’t need to either.

I used to be able to bike down Via dei Neri! 🤯

Locals are irritated by the lines clogging the street, and by the extensive rubbish left there by the panino porn eaters. This led to the city’s mayor creating an ordinance in 2018, banning the consumption of food on sidewalks, in streets, and on doorsteps of shops. Other businesses in the street said they hoped this would “restore decorum on our street.”

While many of the panino porn eaters move further away to consume their food, the clogging and the rubbish and the insane lines continues.

Problem Two: Wine Window Whoopee-Doo

The region of Tuscany has a long history of wine making going back to the Etruscans and wine has deep cultural roots in Florence. Florentine families with wine estates in the countryside built grand palazzi in the historic center during the Renaissance and they placed buchette di vino, wine windows, in the walls of their palazzi, through which they sold their estate’s wine, tax-free.

Babae, a restaurant/bar in Via Santo Spirito was the first location in the city to re-open a wine window, and in the fall of 2019 they started selling glasses of wine through it in the evenings. After it was featured in Stanley Tucci’s TV show in 2021, it became a TikTok sensation. Now there are long lines all day long for this wine window, with inevitable clogging of the street and disgruntled shop owners ensuing.

As well as giddy influencers and tourists with FOMO, now “Tipsy Tours” brings their tour groups to the wine windows. These tours advertise:

“No night out in Florence is complete without a stop at a wine window. Get your cameras ready because this is a moment worthy of the ‘gram.”

Wow, a blatant encouragement of self-indulgent Instagram/TikTok style of travel 😧

Their marketing blurb goes on to tell clients they’ll be served Limoncello by a secret bartender.

Limoncello of course is not Florentine, is not wine, and has no original connection to a wine window.

Photo Credit Tipsy Tours

I know it looks like an adorable experience. And I, myself, have always enjoyed the history of the wine windows and used to find them charming. But the TikTok/Instagram train has taken this unique aspect of Florence and Disneyfied it.

It’s now become something viewed as absurd and cringey by locals.

Problem Three: Bad Behavior

2023 saw 134 million visitors descending on Italy —the highest numbers in the history of tourism to Italy. 2024 is surpassing those numbers.

This means bad behavior also increases.

The center of Florence is a World Heritage UNESCO site. When you behave badly in Florence, you are likely damaging a world heritage site.

Last week, a young female tourist climbed onto Giambologna's Bacchus (luckily, it’s a copy of the original) and mimicked sexual acts with the statue. The images provoked an avalanche of indignation from Italians all over Italy who consider it an offense against the city and its heritage.

Last summer in Florence one among many instances of bad tourist behavior was the defacing of the sixteenth century Vasari Corridor with soccer-related graffiti. Two Germans, 20 and 21 years old (brains obviously not yet fully formed) were arrested.

The director of the Uffizi called for an “iron fist of the law” for these two knuckle-heads who caused $10,800 of damage.

What to do?

I spoke with guide colleagues in Florence and here are some of our recommendations:

• Visit Florence between November and March. 

• If you must travel in the period running from after Easter to the end of October avoid the “Bucket List” locations such as: The David at the Academia, the Uffizi, Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio.

• If you must visit the Uffizi and Academia during summer months, go during evening hours. Or, do the Academia at 8:15am and the Uffizi after 4:00pm. Any other time is a battleground. Go out as early as possible in the day. Before 8:00 am you can view the main squares, the river, and the bridges, without crowds.

• Consider NOT following the recommendations on social media that lead you to Panino Porn, gimmicky wine windows, and restaurants catering primarily to Americans.

• Avoid buying fake leather products from China and Pakistan—recognizable by identical pieces on every corner. Instead, take a tour of the artisan shops operated by locals over generations, and buy their authentic products.

Venice:

As I mentioned in my Spring 2024 Newsletter Venice is now charging day trippers to enter the city in an effort to combat over-tourism. Day visitors, 14 years of age and up, entering the city’s centro storico between 8.30am and 4pm have to pay the five-euro fee.

Venice is suffering from the effects of short-term rentals, selfie-tourism, and badly behaved tourists.

The city has been extremely adversely affected by short-term apartment rentals, which have created a shortage of long-term housing and pushed prices up causing an exodus of locals. About 2,000 residents move out of the city each year. If this continues, it will be a social and anthropological disaster.

Bad behavior is increasing and in the opinion of Chief Commissioner of Venice Gianfranco Zarantonello, is “amplified by social media.”

Last August two Australian tourists rode down the Grand Canal on motorized surf boards as if the canal was the Pacific Ocean off Bondi Beach. Venice's mayor offered dinner to whoever could identify the "arrogant idiots". They were caught and fined €1,500 each. Their boards, valued at around €25,000 were confiscated.

A few weeks later, a Belgian tourist stole a water taxi and zoomed it around the Grand Canal until he was arrested. Two examples among many.

Tourists have asked me what time Venice closes. I kid you not. 

No, it's not Disneyland, it's a city that’s been around since 400 AD.

Photo Credit Venezia Autentica/Sebastian Fagarazzi

Gillian Longworth McGuire, an American living in Venice has these suggestions:

Stay in Venice for at least a few days. Late fall and winter are the quietest times but be prepared for some restaurants and shops to be closed and things to shut early. If you visit Venice in summer, the secret is to do what the Venetians do and go the beach at nearby Lido during the day. Back on the main island, take a late-night walk and you’ll have Piazza San Marco almost to yourself.

Erika Cornali, a guide in Venice since 2009 suggests:

• Plan your trip to Venice during the off season, remembering that the peak season goes from April until the end of October.

• While the winter is relatively cold, there are also very pleasant sunny days. "Acqua alta" can be an issue, but not as much as the heat in the summer.

• All year round, always avoid weekends and national holidays.

• Choose your accommodation in the city center (not on the mainland) and, if possible, stay in a hotel rather than in an apartment to rent: any property rented to tourists is a property not available to locals. If you prefer to stay in an apartment, make sure at least that the property owner is actually living in Venice: this is a benefit for the city and also for you, as your host will be there to help in case you need it. 

• Fairbnb is a platform for rentals that is committed to sustainability and it normally mentions if the host is living in the same building or not.

• Plan at least 3 nights in Venice: there is much more to see than just St. Mark's Square. To see the Rialto bridge and market go early in the morning. To see St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace, go in the late afternoon.

• Go to the less-visited museums and churches such asPalazzo Grimani, Ca' Rezzonico, the Fortuny Museum, the church of the Madonna dell'Orto, and San Francesco della Vigna.

Rome:

They are called The new barbarians.

Every year we hear about tourists immersing themselves in the Trevi Fountain, and even though it’s been made loud and clear for many years that this is vietato, tourists still plunge in. Presumably under the influence of: Social media, summer heat, Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”, or sheer stupidity.

Photo credit Getty Images

Film historian Nicola Bassano explained: “Tourists don’t know how to relate to the artistic heritage because they have no relation with our history, so they refer to their cultural imagination, and therefore to our cinema. The Dolce Vita Trevi Fountain scene has become a model to emulate.”

Guess what? The crowds at this wonderful fountain are so extreme that authorities are considering directing tourists to pass by the fountain single file without stopping. This would be very sad outcome of over-tourism.

Speaking of tourists not understanding Italy’s history, a tourist who defaced the Colosseum, carving Ivan+Hayley 23 says he was “unaware it was ancient”, and admitted he “didn't understand the history” of the 2000-year-old monument.

To Ivan and all others like you: “Unaware” is not good enough. Learn some history for the love of Mother Mary.

Alessandra Poli, a guide in Rome has these comments about the situation:

Over tourism at historic sites in Rome has become a plague. The city center is like Disneyland. Everything is oriented towards tourists. Supermarkets and restaurants are expensive for locals and there are fewer locals living in the center each year.

Avoid the big cruise ships, come off season, avoid the “must see” sites and seek out less-known locations in the city. Choose a small hotel over an Airbnb. Be respectful of waste. Bring an insulated water bottle and use Rome’s public fountains instead of buying throw-away plastic bottles daily.

My final suggestions:

Be an educated traveler

Know some history for the love of Mother Mary.

Develop genuine curiosity about the destination.

Take my course on the Florentine Renaissance before you go. (If you want to be on a list to know when I’m offering it next, let me know in the comments).

Or sign up for a private tour with me in Florence.

Stop it already with the bucket list mentality

Give some careful thought to responsible travel. Think about how to slow down and focus on local life. Go to one place for as long as possible. A few weeks or a month is an ideal antidote to hit & run tourism.

When planning, think about activities that will deepen your experience of the culture.

In Florence there are options for language courses, hands-on lessons with artisans, life drawing courses. Check out the academic talks and history courses at the British Institute.

Don’t patronize global corporations

Avoid McD’s, Starbucks, and other such global corporations that erode cultural distinctiveness. Patronize locally run places (but maybe not the TikTok sensation ones).

Don’t travel to post and boast

Other ideas? Please share in the comments!

View Part 1, overtourism in the Cinque Terre here.