Despite going to Italy at least twice a year (mostly places like Bologna, Turin and seacoast) I hadn’t been to Florence since 2006, because that last visit then I was aghast. The Ponte Vecchio was chock-a-block with tourists such that you got no sense of charm, of mystery, of atmosphere. Just rivers of plodding gelato lickers. All around town they were: cluster bunched in front of the Duomo, filling small lanes, and when the sun was strong on the Piazza della Signora they would all concentrate in a cluster in the shade of the tower of the Palazza Vecchio, which would get real dense there.

I figured you could write off Florence as a place to enjoy because the hordes seemed to have taken over.

But revisiting last week, was a joy. This summer there is a steady stream of articles designed to stimulate freakish horror about “overtourism”. Speaking of freakish horror, I did a quick dip into Cinque Terre in 2018, just to marvel at the masses: the trains disgorging hundreds in the narrow tunnels, the slow marching queue, step by step, up to the end of Riomaggiore. It was entirely worth the 20 minutes each in Vernazza, Riomaggiore, and Monterosso just for the spectacle, before high-tailing it back up the coast toward Genoa.

But, call me a convert, I loved my overtourism experience in Florence just now. The cheapest well-reviewed single I could find a couple months out was 100 Euro, but a week prior I jumped on an offer at a Booking.com partner for the Hotel Eden for 60/night. Basic room, but very comfortable, great shower, fridge, cold bottles of S. Bernardo mineral water in the lobby for one Euro - - a really well run hotel - - would happily stay there again. The tram from the airport is great, and after a 10:30pm landing was at the hotel by 11:10pm.

You know how thousands go to Glastonbury to share days in either blistering sun or driving rain and muck together, and come back elated? You know how two million go to Mecca for the Hajj? You know how tens of thousands of Swifties spend thousands on plane tickets to commune with each other (and Taylor Swift) in a paroxysm of anticipation, celebration, and etermal memories? You know how all the citizens of every far-flung county in the US flock in joy to the county fair - - and then the State Fair? You know Burning Man?

Well “overtourism” is exactly the same - - but WAY BETTER.

Just as with the other big communal happenings you get:
* A sense of journey, pilgrimage, arrival, joining in with so many interesting others;
* Being in the “center of the universe” - - where everyone wants to be;
* Days of stimulating activities;
* Seeing others, learning from others, being attracted to others, participating in the grand human endeavor

But why it’s BETTER than the other grand group goal events:
* You are free to come and go as you please, to follow your senses where they lead;
* The food (and drink) is vastly better, with astounding variety (and prices on a sliding scale, including supermarkets);
* You fill your head with beauty and a connection with human antiquity;
* You overnight and relax with a style and comfort level (and price) of your choosing;
* You encounter a highly diverse and interesting array of different kinds of people - - not just metalheads, cult members, or Swifties;

It was great being in this swirling tourism milieu - - seeing what others found essential (the most popular place in Florence with queues only second to the Uffizi and with a bigger buzz was definitely at All’Antico Vinaio - - a sandwich shop!). Walking the convivial streets, people having meals at outdoor restaurants all the day through, not just after 7pm, seeing the things people were enjoying and then taking them in as others took them in - - it was all a grand participatory experience.

Sure, yes, the old “character” of places change (still, in Florence, the food traditions, and so much of the style remains - - along with the architecture- - and - - get this - - all the store clerks, waitpersons, baristas, hotel staff were WONDERFUL, so joyous and open and engaging - - always ready to smile and laugh)!!!

But, as the writer of “overtourism” sometimes omit to report, everything in our world changes, and always has. Especially in the last handful of years, with all practical things becoming highly digital, and efficient - - and constantly innovative. Things are now changing FAST. As always, civilizations advance, then they morph, maybe they crumble - - and people are constantly moving, whole populations shifting. Everything changes - - that’s just the way things are. One serious concern about ‘overtourism’ is that locals gain nothing, and all the money goes to corporate sharks - - but local authorities could change that if they decided to (and some are now planning ways to do that).

Speaking of fast changes: after one day in Florence took the train the next day to Padua, visited Il Santo, then had a quick 7 Euro pasta at Pastficia Artusi De Bojo by the markets; trained to Venice just to do a vaporetto trip out past Giudecca and then back down the Grand Canal; then trained to Bologna and hit my fave bars and foodie places (shame the University isn’t in session - - it’s most vibrant then), then back to Florence. It was a “greatest hits” tour day. It was wonderful.

I certainly did my part for overtourism in this three-nighter to Florence, but if cultural usurpation remains a thorny issue, here is a solution: a chain of theme parks OUTSIDE the current over-touristed city centers, that mimic the experience of visiting the destination itself, only better. For instance, there could be a Barcelona Theme Park, near Barcelona, right by the airport, so that tourists would never have to go all the way into the overtouristed center. The Barcelona Theme Park could have a simulated ‘Ramblas’, with animateurs dressed as dancing Cava bottles, where you could stroll and shop for gaudy Gaudi things, leading directly to a Sagrada Familia church replica with a roller coaster up and down it, tapas booths strung out as far as the eye can see, three-card-monte stands where you actually get a consolation prize when you lose, a Park Guell replica with zoo animals - - it would be an epitomization of Barcelona that for many tourists would be FAR BETTER than Barcelona itself, and would leave those wanting the more ‘authentic’ experience to the pickpockets, seedy back alleys, and overpriced eateries of the ‘real’ Barcelona. Let's get on it. Chop chop.

I have so many thoughts... but find myself without words.

Ditto.

Ditto....but my first reaction is this must be the biggest p*ss-take on Fodor's since the Thin Gorjus days. Friends who live in Florence would have a laugh at this, or more likely, cry.
One of my friends did a reel on FB and Insta last year of that over promoted sandwich shop All'Antico Vinaio as she was walking past the hordes lined up for blocks and sitting in the gutter munching their sandwiches scattering litter everywhere...."please don't sit in the gutter people and you know, people live here and are trying to get to work.."

With good reason. Florence has changed, changed utterly. Anyone who lives there will feel the pain. Just as anyone who lives in Syria feels pain, or southern Sudan - - or Orlando Florida. It is what it is. Let the crying and moralizing begin.

Nope. Still without words....

I also wouldn't go to the Glastonbury festival, or to a Taylor Swift concert. (Nothing against Taylor; my granddaughter has persuaded me to listen to one of her albums on Spotify.)

I'm not a Muslim, so I can't say I wouldn't go on the Hajj I were. Let's just say I have no plans to go to the Vatican for the Jubilee Year, even though I'm Catholic.

As for your theme park idea I think they have attempted that in Las Vegas.

Or EPCOT.

I think the theme park idea is another modest proposal, and pretty funny.

" A sense of journey, pilgrimage, arrival, joining in with so many interesting others;"

I guess you could say that about every cruise ship passenger who lines up at a local donut shop where the offerings are as bleh as you can get. I want to say But Why??!! everytime I walk by that line but there is no way I am sharing our fave local places for fear of having to join with all those interesting others when I want a treat.

I often wonder which social media/sponsored website promoting local restaurants/website is having such an influence on masses of people. It's not as if we don't have literally hundreds of others pastry and donut shops in the city. Could it be misinformation in the tourism sector? Maybe that's why this site is still operating despite all the sources of tourist information online. People want information they can trust from fellow travellers they feel at least some connection to.

It's the Instagram effect. Social media "influencers" are often paid to promote products, businesses, etc.

There's a tv commercial here that mocks the whole "I'm here!" obsession. Some popular places have had to institute no-stopping laws to prevent crowds from congregating at particular spots to take and post selfies that are the same as what they see on Instagram.

Here's the tv commercial:

There are dozens upon dozens of YT travel vloggers focusing on food. They often vlog about things to eat near big tourist destinations, especially places that are cheap and informal. Some have become celebrities. I have watched many of these videos; a few of the vloggers are very talented and serious. But at the same time they are also cheerleaders for the places they go.

The good thing is that there are now more and more people putting value on local and traditional foods that are affordable. We are no longer limited to hearing about the "Top Ten Restaurants in Florence." Over and over again. Travel media has become more egalitarian. But since the vloggers tend to hit the same places, those places become easily inundated.

Jean that made me laugh...and cry lol.

But having said that, we are going to spend 5 nights in Venice in September and I can hardly wait. Having seen all the biggies years ago, thankfully, we can concentrate on out of the way places, and maybe a few islands, although I have read the islands are also now overrun. Still good things to see and taste and experience, I am sure, though. My favorite time is Venice is the 5-6 am slot, watching the city come alive. So beautiful!

natylou, I hope you have a great time in Venice. Unfortunately, when we return to places we've enjoyed in the past, we're almost always disappointed. Venice is one of those places.

"How it all went wrong for tourism"

https://www.cnn.com/travel/tourism-w...ong/index.html

I honestly think that Venice deserves to be overtouristed, and is totally fitting. This is the most remarkable, most spectacular, creation - - it is an ancient creation - - and it's very essence is a kind of eternal search for splendor and triumph, that remains resplendent in its otherworldly beauty, but that is ultimately all about the futility of striving. A timeless lostness in the passing of ages, which includes death and disease, empires faultering. A morbid beauty that transcends all other strivings for civic importance, eternal significance, personal relevance.

Articles decry how the "locals" are being driven out - - but there are no "locals" here. There are people who are born there, but they didn't plan that, they didn't somehow deserve elevation above the rest of humanity - - it is a shared legacy, with all the world. When Venice was at its apex, the life expectancy was maybe 30 years? I can feel for anyone who is born anywhere - - but Venice is a world cultural magnificence that does, I'm afraid, belong to all of humanity, and I am so happy, that all humanity has the opportunity, the chance, to participate in it.

I'm sure there is a simple solution that will make all of us superior folk happy. As the articles says:"Lucy Lethbridge, journalist and author of “Tourists,” which traces the history of tourism from a British perspective, says there has always been a kind of snobbery about who should travel . . . Right from the start of Victorian “mass” tourism, there were complaints about crowds – “but they usually came from other tourists,” she says.”