The article I read today on traveling to Italy didn’t come as a surprise, I had heard the same news in a program on the Italian TV station a few months ago. The article talks about Venice, Capri, Lake Garda, the Emerald coast in Sardinia and more sites which tourists stumble upon mindlessly and carelessly. Read the article here.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/953108/venice-tourism-italy-crackdown-capri-lake-garda
Tourists have targeted some historical Italian cities, partly because of the activities Hollywood brought to Italy, such as filming in certain locations, actors buying beautiful Italian properties, or vacationing on Italian territory, but also because with the increase of low-cost air fares, anybody can afford to discover far away lands. Although Italy likes and wants tourists, the nation can no longer bear the influx of millions of tourists a year. The streets are small, the infrastructures frail and the onset of B&Bs, hotels, restaurants with tourist menus and Chinese low-cost souvenirs, did nothing more than uproot the local people. Local people can no longer buy goods of ‘prime necessity’, such as bread, pasta, milk, fruit, meat, medicine, clothing, go to the doctor or send kids to schools. They have been forced out of the city for other living accommodation in neighboring villages and small towns, leaving Venice in the hands of tourists, who are only interested in taking the usual boring photos in Piazza San Marco with the pigeons, eat power bars, or disgusting food in tourist restaurants, buy souvenirs of no value in Chinese shops, go to the bathroom, choke the city sewers and go away to the next destination.
The Italian city officials want to set up check points, crowd control measures and limit the daily entry to the most popular cities to a certain amount of tourists.
I don’t blame them for wanting to adopt such drastic measures, local life of natives has disappeared, natives need to return and regain their cities.
(Venice crowded streets)
(Venice crowded canals)
Crowding the most famous cities in the world is not a way to travel. This is not smart traveling using the brain, this is some game travel agencies and tour operators want to play to the detriment of the historical Italian cities.
People of the world only move from country to country as fast as they can, vacation time is short and want to see as much as they can, so they can say to have been there. However, when they return to their home base, don’t even know what they have seen and where that thing was. This is not traveling, this is moving a heard of people like cows.
Traveling is a different thing all together, is experiencing how people live and what they do in their daily routine. Traveling is about learning history and discovering what tickles the locals, what they eat and what excites them, what the nation produces and how is produced. Traveling is also helping a farmer and learn some agriculture technique, then plant something from that country in your own backyard. Traveling is learning a language on the spot or improving the knowledge speaking with the locals. Traveling is experiencing a theatre representation, or do some different culture activity that generally one wouldn’t do at home.
Do these travelers in flip-flops, short pants and stupid t-shirts know how a Ferrari is produced and where the factory is? Do they ever go to a fashion show, visit a fashion industry, or fashion school and hold a piece of fantastic fabric in their hands? Do they know the difference between a “culatello” and a “prosciutto”?
Do they know that a prosciutto made from the left leg of the pig is better and tastier than the prosciutto made from the right leg? Do they know what is a Parmigiano made from the red cow, or what is a “chianina steak”? Do these travelers know how balsamic vinegar is made and do they know how to taste olive oil, balsamic vinegar or wines? Three different ingredients for Italian food, three different ways to taste them. Do these travelers know that gnocchi and gnocco fritto are two different things?
Would they know how to play soccer with beer caps, if they saw kids playing in the streets? Do they know that in San Gregorio Armeno is Christmas every day and can buy Christmas art made by skilled local artists to take home? Do they ever know that chocolate made with a filling of Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar is an explosion of taste buds and an experience they would never forget? How about picking some white berries, which I am sure they have never seen before?
Flocking only to the most popular cities is not the way to go. If travelers would take a detour and go visit some of the places where Italians make products, they would love the experience of traveling so much better and they wouldn’t face any crowd at all.
It has been said “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer” and
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes.”
I don’t go where the mass go, I totally dislike crowded places and bad services.
I find my way outside the beaten path and I take smart travelers with me, those people who can live it up, learn new ways, new things, have fun discovering and become better people. There is so much to see in the world, why go where everybody goes? Go to Italy, select one not publicized area and discover all there is to know in that area. Vacation time is precious, don’t waste it with bad food, irritable people, long lines, high prices and tourist traps. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2/
Copyright © 2018 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved
As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, her native land, Valentina’s intention is to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. She wants to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of local customs, art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, she wants them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia!
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Valentina Expressions 