‘It’s changing the city’s face’: Locals share stories on how overtourism impacts Rome’s culture

Tourism in Italy has not solely recuperated for the reason that COVID-19 lockdown days: guests are coming again in droves at unprecedented ranges, significantly within the Italian capital of Rome.

Final 12 months, a report 35 million folks flocked to the Everlasting Metropolis. And, with the Catholic Church’s Jubilee developing subsequent 12 months, issues are solely going to get extra intense.

I first moved to Rome again in April 2021, within the midst of COVID-19, to pursue my PhD programme. Again then, the town felt like considered one of Italian director Federico Fellini’s movie units.

I recount visiting the much-beloved Trevi Fountain in broad daylight, which was so empty you possibly can hear a pin drop.

It was inevitable that issues would have modified in the end. But little did I anticipate that, three years later, the state of affairs would grow to be so insupportable that Rome’s native authorities would mull over charging guests to see iconic landmarks.

‘Overtourism is a plague’ says Rome resident

As the town plans to begin ticketing folks to go to Trevi Fountain, residents are questioning if issues have gone too far – and if tourism has grow to be extra a burden on, slightly than bulwark of, the town’s life.

“Overtourism is a plague,” Anthony Majanlahti, a Rome-based professor and one of many main specialists within the metropolis’s historical past, tells Euronews Journey.

“The proposal to cost a payment [€2] will make foot site visitors within the space worse, not higher. The truth is, it’s only a shameless money seize.”

“What concerning the precise metropolis life that goes on within the piazza, the retailers and bars there, the church of SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio on the nook, the town’s oldest pharmacy quietly wanting onto the sq.?” he ponders.

Trevi Fountain isn’t the one a part of the town to have felt tarnished by the ‘reverse’ Midas contact of overtourism. Locals declare that the overcrowded streets have gotten unattainable to navigate.

Different widespread complaints embody Airbnbs and vacation leases driving hire by the roof, public transport turning into an unapproachable odyssey, and extra litter and cleanliness issues.

Among the foundations of la dolce vita – the great thing about savouring all of the small rituals that make up Italian day by day life – have began to really feel extra like chores.

As an example, I used to be pressured emigrate from my native café as a result of exterior chairs and tables at the moment are reserved for ‘[tourist] eating’, and now not for locals wanting a espresso.

The costs have additionally been inflated to cater to the market – the times of a €1 espresso are a distant reminiscence.

Rome: A favoured vacation spot for hundreds of years

Vacationers have at all times been a part of Rome’s DNA: from the ruin-hopping Anglo-German aristocrats of the ‘Grand Tour’ and pilgrims flocking to St. Peter’s Basilica and different sacred websites to the low-cost, sun-seeking package deal deal revellers of the post-Second World Warfare interval.

Certainly, the very neighbourhood I dwell in close to the Spanish Steps was largely developed within the 18th century to accommodate swelling crowds of pilgrims.

However right this moment’s guests appear much less a part of the town’s cloth.

It feels as if Rome’s face is altering to cater to vacationers, forgetting its personal id within the course of.

‘Overtourism’ or enterprise as standard in Rome? What the numbers say

Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic took an apparent toll on what’s considered one of Italy’s greatest sectors – accounting for 10.5 per cent of its GDP – statistics present that Italy has had no challenge recuperating former guests. If something, numbers are on the rise.

“Revenge tourism was very actual. Guests got here lots sooner and much more aggressively than folks anticipated”, says Mitra Talarman, a prolific Rome-based journey information with an internet following of over half one million, when talking to Euronews Journey.

A lot of Rome’s enduring attraction is timeless – from its architectural glories spanning three millennia to its quintessentially romantic appeal.

But driving the vacationer increase is each its current illustration within the worldwide media (most just lately, the newest season of the hit Netflix collection ‘Emily in Paris’, which is partially filmed in Rome) and its look in movies on social media apps Instagram and TikTok.

However as 32 million people are anticipated to go to Rome solely for its Jubilee 12 months, the town merely isn’t outfitted to deal with the sheer mass of people

“We don’t have sufficient tour guides, we don’t have sufficient bus drivers,” Talarman bemoans.

Is the Jubilee turning Rome right into a ‘big Airbnb’?

The Catholic Church’s Jubilee, which is able to start Christmas Eve 2024 and final till December 2025, is the subsequent massive occasion within the Roman calendar.

In preparation for the recent wave of roughly 32 million pilgrims anticipated to flock to the Roman capital and the Holy See, the city’s administration has embarked upon a mammoth city renovation and beautification programme.

This has seen roads shut, metro stations shut, and landmarks hidden behind scaffolding – a lot to the chagrin of locals.

Held each 25 years, it’s meant to symbolize the remission of sins and money owed. However locals are far much less forgiving.

The Jubilee has, sarcastically, grow to be so triggering for Roman residents that it has even fuelled the rants of TikTokers.

“After this 12 months, they’ll open a psychological asylum for individuals who dwell on this metropolis,” says one influencer in a reel posted on Instagram that has already garnered over 300,000 views.

Arguably, the largest affect the Jubilee has on native life is the housing market.

Tourism’s affect on the worldwide housing disaster or ‘The Airbnb Impact’ has already been well-documented. And, because the world’s seventh most-visited metropolis, Rome is way from exception.

Quick-term leases within the Italian capital elevated by 37.3 per cent in 2023, making it the second-highest metropolis in Europe after Amsterdam.

Lease now averages €2,000 a month, whereas the typical month-to-month wage is €2,367. Discovering a single flat for lower than €700 in Rome’s suburbs, that are poorly lined by the general public transport system, has now changed into a near-impossible problem.

Journalist Simone Alliva is one particular person bearing the brunt of the Jubilee.

Compelled to go away his dwelling of 13 years to make manner for a brand new vacation rental, Alliva immediately blames the Jubilee – and politicians’ lacklustre response to it – for reworking Italy’s capital into a vacation website that has evicted its personal inhabitants.

“The town has changed into an enormous Airbnb,” he tells Euronews Journey. “[Rent] has reached astronomical heights: rooms alone are going for €800 a month.”

“Many have been pressured to go away the house they’ve lived in for years as a result of their landlord determined to benefit from this main occasion for additional revenue,” he added.

The state of affairs has reached a boiling level, as college students take to the streets to protest their more and more unaffordable dwelling state of affairs in Rome’s fundamental pupil neighbourhood (San Lorenzo).

“The town ought to enact ordinances closing the hundreds of Airbnb residences within the metropolis centre if it desires to take overtourism severely,” Majanlahti states.

Are there any alternatives in Rome’s overtourism challenge?

Some well-liked vacationer spots in Italy have taken issues into their very own palms, responding to the difficulty with controversial measures.

Most famously, Venice applied a tax for day-trippers, which was met with vital controversy.

Nonetheless, this isn’t the place taken by Italy’s present tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, who earlier this 12 months was investigated for allegedly fraudulent exercise. For the ministry, that is enterprise as standard – if not higher.

“The Ministry’s insurance policies and methods are based mostly on the view that progress isn’t the issue; slightly, it’s how progress is managed,” she tells Euronews Journey.

When requested how the issue may very well be managed, the minister talked about encouraging the diversification of vacationer locations and sustainable practices and allocating €47 million to “strengthen main cultural locations” like Rome.

No reply is offered relating to the housing disaster and the way residents are being displaced.

“When the Jubilee is completed, what might be left of Rome?” Alliva asks. With the occasion beginning in lower than two months, its residents will quickly discover out.