…it’s unlikely any words or images you, GS or even someone like Bourdain publish or published actually have much pull on such overwhelming tides. If careful, you might even help or already have helped one excellent underappreciated trattoria or piqued some needed interest in one or two distant, breathtaking towns otherwise at risk of utter abandonment. Geography, economic policy (global more than merely local or regional,) demographics and cultural expression… are the greedy moons that… raise the floodwaters. Focusing on that latter noun phrase… people like GS and you are likely more to help carry richer aspects of places (and people there) across this.. er, brave new world. That has such… tourists in’t. Than to foster any more ruinous starbuckification of it.
I’m just old enough to have been graced to eat up all that, well, relatively empty-spaced magic that rudderless travel and improvised trips used to result in - even in places that have become impossible, by and large, today - in Italy as elsewhere. Again luckily, the peninsula actually is rather special - with simply so many little known places and products- that miraculously still resist. Maybe for your next articles you might dive even deeper into those tiny places in difficulty for various reasons. There are many. Yet they all pretty much deserve to be carried through, I think.
I can relate to this story and am so glad I saw Italy before the crowds arrived. I think of Charleston and the fun of driving there and spending the day. Now, it is overrun with so many people. I find myself wishing they would stop writing about it.
There is so much to balance. Of course people want to see the places. Like you & Giulia I wish we had better governance that cared more about the residents than things like entry tickets.
Exactly! Because a lot of those measures (entry tickets, city tax, etc) actually end up harming local businesses and promote day-trip tourism that doesn't bring real income or interaction with the city.
It's a hard question to answer...
It is! And I found your thoughts very insightful. Thank you for the inspiration!
🥰🥰🥰
…it’s unlikely any words or images you, GS or even someone like Bourdain publish or published actually have much pull on such overwhelming tides. If careful, you might even help or already have helped one excellent underappreciated trattoria or piqued some needed interest in one or two distant, breathtaking towns otherwise at risk of utter abandonment. Geography, economic policy (global more than merely local or regional,) demographics and cultural expression… are the greedy moons that… raise the floodwaters. Focusing on that latter noun phrase… people like GS and you are likely more to help carry richer aspects of places (and people there) across this.. er, brave new world. That has such… tourists in’t. Than to foster any more ruinous starbuckification of it.
I’m just old enough to have been graced to eat up all that, well, relatively empty-spaced magic that rudderless travel and improvised trips used to result in - even in places that have become impossible, by and large, today - in Italy as elsewhere. Again luckily, the peninsula actually is rather special - with simply so many little known places and products- that miraculously still resist. Maybe for your next articles you might dive even deeper into those tiny places in difficulty for various reasons. There are many. Yet they all pretty much deserve to be carried through, I think.
Thank you for this!
Thanks for the mention!
I can relate to this story and am so glad I saw Italy before the crowds arrived. I think of Charleston and the fun of driving there and spending the day. Now, it is overrun with so many people. I find myself wishing they would stop writing about it.
Yes lucky you for seeing Italy before the tourist boom! It is quite the quandary...
There is so much to balance. Of course people want to see the places. Like you & Giulia I wish we had better governance that cared more about the residents than things like entry tickets.
Exactly! Because a lot of those measures (entry tickets, city tax, etc) actually end up harming local businesses and promote day-trip tourism that doesn't bring real income or interaction with the city.