Tourism and artisans

Today I had a wonderfully interesting experience.

I walked in the workshop of a Florentine artisan and we started talking about his sales; a huge tour group stopped in front of his shop, blocking the entrance like a live but immobile wall, their backs to us, listening to the guide. After just a few minutes, they turned to the side and walked away, without even glancing for a moment at the artisan's beautiful window display.

One woman who was with me pointed out that she would have definitely looked in the window and felt curious and compelled to come in...and that comment got me thinking...and got us talking...and we discussed what exactly is going on with contemporary tourism, how it affects Florence, and how it affects the business of this particular artisan.

He told us many things, and I learned some pretty interesting pieces of information from him:

1. Today Florence is overcrowded with masses of tourists that spend a very short amount of time here (even just an hour), visit Piazza Duomo and Piazza della Signoria, shoot a couple photos while rushing after the guide, and all along learn just about nothing of Florence itself. To quote our host, "at most, they'll buy an icecream". 

2. So not only do they not learn about Florence (despite all the language on "discover authentic Florence" that much advertisement uses), they don't even affect much the local economy.

3. What they do affect, in his opinion, is the state of Florence itself as a city, and as a world heritage: groups as big as 80 people crowd the tiny streets, stomp all over the ancient stones, use them up, even consume the works of art displayed all throughout the city..."but you can't call back Cellini to fix his own sculptures, can you?". No you can't. 

4. This mass tourism exploded around 2005. For some reason, in that period the artisan noticed an evident change: tourist groups grew in number and composition, and this is his opinion is a problem. The city is a difficult place to live, now, for locals.

Words started exploding in my head: globalization, identity, preservation, ecology...and I felt that something is deeply wrong. I also felt compelled to share this idea, to spread somehow an awareness, because it is true that quality of life is getting lower and lower, even in a beautiful place like Florence.

What can we all do to make things turn for the better?