Over the last ten years, Florence has availed itself of an unstoppable growth in tourism: In the year 2019 tourist presences in the city reached 11 million, as claimed by the CTS (Center for the Study of Tourism of Florence) most of them flocking to the city centre. Hotels always booked, endless queues for the museums, tourists screaming through the narrow streets of the city. From €22 million in 2014 the city grossed nearly €50 million in 2018, from the city tax alone. With this amount, together with revenues from other sources (bus, hotel, museum tickets and restaurants) the city had an income of nearly € 3.4 billion, in the year 2018. Airbnb and apartment rental agencies have taken the place of the locals who have moved out to the outskirts of the city, due to the increasingly high price of apartments. Many old shops and historical “Botteghe artigiane” (crafts shops) have closed, replaced by tourists shops and low quality restaurants.
In order to face the increasing demand of tourists, over the years the historic city centre has been completely changed, slowly losing its identity and making the life for the few locals remained so unbearable that they have started to refer to their city as “Disneyland”.
Over the past two years, local authorities haven’t been able to take advantage of the situation that the pandemic had offered, and have started re-evaluating their activities in tourism. In few words they have overlooked the need for a tourism system that embraces new perspectives for better organization, developing a more structured, slower and better quality tourism and re-thinking the way in which what the city offers is being consumed, avoiding mindless mass exploitation by visitors.
As expected, today the situation in Florence has returned to “normality” – , with 7.4 million presence in the year 2022 just in the city of Florence. Mass tourism is back, stronger than before.
Florence, Italy, October 31st 2022. A Chinese tourist reflected on her phone screen intent on taking a picture of the “Fontana del Nettuno” (Neptune’s Fountain) by the Renaissance artist Bartolomeo Ammanati, one of the main artistic attractions of the city.Florence, Italy, April 23rd 2023. View of an overcrowded Piazza della Signoria, one of the main tourist attractions of the city. As claimed by the CTS (Center for the Study of Tourism of Florence) the city of Florence, just in the year 2022, was visited by 7.4 milion of tourists.Florence, Italy, October 31st 2022. A tourist shopping stands in Piazza della Signoria.Florence, Italy September 17th 2022. A tourist taking a picture in Piazza della Signoria.Florence, Italy, April 1st 2023. Tourists walking in Piazza Santa Croce, one of the main tourist attractions of the city.Florence, Italy, September 11th 2023. Tourists taking a picture of the famous”schiacciata” (a popular Tuscan kind of bread sandwich) of the “All’Antico Vinaio, one of the most popular sandwich shop in the world. Every day hundreds of people wait in line to taste the famous schiacciata. During lunch time, the queues of people occupy the entire narrow street, provoking many protests among residents and the other shop’s owners.Florence, Italy, August 15th 2023. Tourists eating the famous “schiacciata” (a popular Tuscan kind of bread sandwich) of the “All’Antico Vinaio” one of the most popular sandwich shop in the world. Often, during lunch time, the queues of people occupy the entire narrow street. During lunch time, the queues of people occupy the entire narrow street, provoking many protests among residents and the other shop’s owners.Florence, Italy, April 23rd 2023. A can full of trash in Piazza del Grano, behind this square there is the famous “Galleria degli Uffizi” (The Uffizi Gallery) one of the most important museum in the world, one of the main tourist attraction of the city. Inside his rooms visitors can admire mastepiece of Boticelli, Caravaggio, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci among others.Florence, Italy, September 14th 2023. View of the Mercato di San Lorenzo, one of the main tourist attraction of the city. The historical shops and stands of the market slowly have been closed to make way to tourist stalls that offers pret a porte t-shirt and cheap leather goods. During the years the market completely lose its identity.Florence, Italy, September 14th 2023. A tourist choosing between two bags in the Mercato di San Lorenzo, one of the main tourist attraction of the city. The historical shops of the market slowly have been closed to make way to tourist stalls that offers pret a porte t-shirt and cheap leather goods. During the years the market completely lose its identity.Florence, Italy, August 15th 2023. Groups of tourist resting in Piazza Santa Croce, one of the main tourist attractions of the city.Florence, Italy October 21st 2023. A tourist smoking a cigarette in Piazza della Signoria.Florence, Italy, August 15th 2023. A warden urges a tourist to stand up from the “Loggia dei Lanzi” step’s in Piazza della Signoria, one of the main tourist attractions of the city. The Loggia dei Lanzi is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street. It is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art by some of the greatest artists of that time like Giambologna, Benvenuto Cellini and others. Often tourists doesn’t respect the rules, eating and sitting on the steps, with the risk of broken or stain the Loggia’s sculptures and steps.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAFlorence, Italy, March 8th 2023. Workers and tourists resting in Piazza della Signoria. Behind them the signs that indicate the new opening of a fashion shop in the historic square. Due to the high rental prices in the the city centre, many historical shop that can’t afford the new rates closed to make way for fashion shops and tourist restaurants. In this way the city of Florence is slowly losing its identity.Florence, Italy, April 8th 2023. Tourists walking in an overcrowded Piazza della Signoria, in front of the David di Michelangelo reproduction. The original one is preserved in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. Piazza della Signoria is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republic. Today together with Piazza della Signoria it’s one of the main tourist attraction.Florence, Italy, August 2nd 2023. Fluorescent and tourist gadgets depicting the “David di Michelangelo”, on a stand of a tourist shop in the city centre.Florence, Italy October 29th 2023. Group of tourits looking at the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria.Florence, Italy September 17th 2022. A tourist taking a picture close to Piazza della Repubblica. Piazza della Repubblica was originally the site of the city’s forum; then of its old ghetto, which was swept away during the improvement works initiated during the brief period when Florence was the capital of a reunited Italy (1860-1865). The piazza is today a theatre of street-artists and impromptu exhibitions.Florence, Italy, November 5th 2022. A tourist leaving Palazzo Vecchio Museum, behind him a poster with a close up of the face of Michelangelo’s David under maintenance. The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks Piazza della Signoria, in which there is a copy of Michelangelo’s statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. Palazzo Vecchio is also a museum. Together with Piazza della Signoria it is one of the main tourist attractions of the city.
