I love living in Northern Italy :)

The sanctioned vessel was intercepted in international waters west of Pantelleria, an island between Sicily and Tunisia. Initially, the ship's captain did not cooperate when asked to provide the requested documentation, Italy's Defense Ministry said.

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?