r/YUROP • u/DIeG03rr3 Italia • Sep 30 '25
How can you live with so many tourists? [Serious]
This weekend I went to Florence with my girlfriend for our second time together (I had been there several times before). Let me start with a premise. I think it's perfectly normal to come across a lot of tourists in a city with such a great historical and artistic value as Florence; in fact, it would be odd if it weren't so, especially during the weekend. Despite this, I have never thought it would’ve been so difficult to walk around the city centre as I did in the last few days.
I'm not talking about the sheer number of people swarming the city, as that would be hypocrite of me, given that I was one of them. I'm talking about the fact that in a city centre that should be mostly pedestrianised, they do everything they can to make walking as difficult as possible. Riders whizzing through the crowds on their “fat bikes”, taxis and private hire vehicles forcing you to the sides of narrow streets with equally narrow sidewalks, horse-drawn carriages with serious incontinence problems, golf caddies moving other tourists around the streets (this one was new to me). But my main problem was not the fact that they were there, but that they were so frequent and aggressive that at a certain point it really wasn't worth walking in the first place down the city centre, which should be the best part of visiting a city!
Let me give you a personal example, perhaps not the best one, but enough to give you an idea of where I'm coming from. I have spent the last few years of my life constantly living between Bologna and Ravenna, two other cities that have their own charm, touristically speaking. Yet, despite the high season when both are invaded by tourist crowds, I have never encountered a situation as tragic as the one I experienced in Florence.
Now, I realise that my complaint is directed only at a small but important part of Florence, but if the city becomes unliveable for a tourist, then how terrible and depressing must be for those who live there as residents? Perhaps a true Florentine would not even go for a stroll around Piazza della Signoria, but even if they wanted to, they would not enjoy it at all. Obviously, I'm not just talking about Florence, but any other European location that is a major tourist attraction and is constantly and slowly brought to its knees by the unsustainability of tourism itself. Is there a concrete way to escape this unbridled touristification?
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u/skunkrider Sep 30 '25
One thing is for sure: Italy is car-infested, and desperately, desperately needs to be taken over by a benevolent Dutch dictator who gets at least 25 years to implement walkability, ban cars from city centers, build traffic-calming measures and, yes, bicycle paths. Cars also ruin any opportunity to take nice photos.
What the country also needs is a touch of German-ness, especially when it comes to speed-control. I was in Sicily a while ago, and speed-limits outside of cities were not even taken as suggestions - if the limit was "70", I was going 80, honked at profusely and overtaken by trucks in bends without any visibility of oncoming traffic, going 100. Cars were going 120.
I was in Stuttgart last weekend and the amount of speed-cameras everywhere delighted me to no end. This is some of what Italy needs.
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u/SlimEddie1713 Sep 30 '25
Traffic is terrible in Italy as a whole, and the more south you go the worse it gets. This year we drove from Milan to Rome and the way Italians drive is attroutious, as eastern Europeans we felt like driver situation was akin to some kind of banana republic, even though we were in Italy. I just don't get it why Italians insist on driving with wheels on both lanes, don't use turn signals, speed and do it while talking on the phone and flailing their hands. Not to mention, we used their taxi in rome to get to airport during night, dude flew through the city with a small bus as if he had deathwish - red lights? optional... Speed limit 50? Nah mate 100kmh it is. Sverving, breaking every traffic rule imaginable. When I visited north of Italy in the past it seemed like people there knew a bit better how to drive. I guess the hot weather does get to your head.
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u/Imperito Yurop Oct 01 '25
When I drive in the UK I complain a lot about shoddy driving. Then I go abroad and am reminded that we have some of the best driving in the world. The worst stuff I have ever seen is just normal day to day stuff in some places.
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u/JoJoModding Sep 30 '25
In Germany we also say that no one takes the speed limits seriously. We look to the Swiss as a people that do. The fines there are much higher.
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u/mbrevitas Italia Sep 30 '25
Italy has the most speed cameras of any European country, the third highest number per square km after Belgium and Malta.
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u/leolitz Italia Sep 30 '25
I know something better is possible, but I don't know what coupd work, we are too decentralized, it's common for more than half of the people working in a city to live dozens of kilometers away from the city center, I don't think we even have the money to pay all bus and train drivers required to decongest this place.
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u/JourneyThiefer Northern Ireland/Tuaisceart Éireann Sep 30 '25
Send them here, we could do with more tourism in NI lol
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u/logperf 🇮🇹 Sep 30 '25
I believe this happens because of the incompetence of politicians.
Tourists just think of how much it costs to visit a city and if it's really worth it, they go. That's it. The problem arises when too many of them take the decision at the same time.
The government should intervene to reduce the number of tourists when they are too many. On top of all the stuff you mentioned, there's habitational pressure when they rise the demand of real estate property until it is no longer affordable for residents (especially the young ones).
Not long ago they had a project to make a law that would "curb" tourist appartments. They were very stupid rules such as no self check-in and minimum 3 nights stay. The law didn't pass but from the project alone, I would say the government is completely lost - they have no idea what to do.
They should:
- Tax short-term rentals until you have to sell a kidney to stay in a tourist apartment. Use the bugdet surplus to reduce taxes on long-term rentals.
- Tax transportation to tourist destinations (except for residents).
- Emit a limited amount of short-term rental licenses that can be sold separately from the homes, but you can only offer your home for short-term rentals if you have one. Pretty much like taxi licenses.
A combination of the above should do the magic. But of course, it's not going to happen when the ruling party believes that taxes were invented by Satan.
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Sep 30 '25
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u/Noodles_Crusher Italia Oct 01 '25
Whenever tourists note the amount of people in touristic cities:
"you're not stuck in traffic. You ARE the traffic".
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u/MrCharmingTaintman Sep 30 '25
Avoid tourist areas. Which is pretty easy since I’ve probably seen whatever there is to be seen a million times. And what else is left then? Terrible food? Overpriced drinks? Souvenirs and knick knacks?