Italy has so much to see and do. It would take three lifetimes. Incredible diversity of huge national parks—mountains, grasslands, forests, wetlands, coastlines. It's "Wilderness" with a capital "W." You might not see an Italian for years. For outdoors people, this is the place to go. I highly recommend Tim Jepson's Wild Italy: A Traveller's Guide, to start your vacation planning.
Yep. Discovered La Sila and Pollino National Park. We were the first American guests at a new Bnb conversion in Civita that had the best architecture and food experience for the budget I’ve ever experienced. The young Italian married couple could also serve as backcountry and culture trek outfitters. Laino Borgo is a major whitewater destination now too.
When I made the decision at the end of my job not to go back to Angloland, I was talking to a friend about it, and he said, “Hilary, the one thing Italy will never do is bore you. You will spend the rest of your life investigating it.”
I agree with your map color gradient, and have moved from the obligatory dark brown to the rewarding mid-tones in the last 25 years.
The dark spot in the middle of Basilicata is Matera. Christ stopped at Eboli perhaps, but UNESCO did not. I will be back only because my 25th wedding anniversary falls on the feast day of San Eustachio the patron of this ancient city and we want to participate in the blessing of the silver anniversary couples in the cathedral.
It is beautiful and entertaining on the level of the big destinations now, and particularly popular with Italians at least in my first visit when it was hard to believe it was real. But since I visited there the first time 6 years ago it has crossed the line from a restored town to a restored museum/spa hybrid, at least by my metrics. Good for Matera but cari saluti from me.
“So some towns can genuinely be quiet for 10 months and then receive an overwhelming number of visitors in eight weeks.”
There is another kind of Calvino-worthy invisible city in one town I know. Lago (Calabria) above Amantea is virtually empty but for August. My understanding from relatives of locals is that it doesn’t fill with tourists in August so much as returning expatriates from the cities and countries to the north.
The town has largely emptied or left one or two to anchor households year round, but the empty homes do not sell, as there is less demand value for that than to keep it open for the yearly town reunion, which I understand is a 24 hour fest and loud as Rome during that time. Near as I can tell the mayor (who currently is from the same local name-line as my wife) is responsible for keeping the empty street clean and infrastructure functional between the yearly re-population party. Appearances suggest they do a good job of this, and town hall is busy with citizenship applicants with displays celebrating famous town alumni including one I actually knew from LA.
So these August (as in both the month and in gravitas) re-patriots are not tourists, but owners of now second homes in the South. I don’t know how these Istats would show, but I find the phenomenon wonderfully poetic and worthy of study for a kind of sustainability. Superficial analysis suggests that enough people are resident year round to talk with me about it last week of September in the one open piazza cafe (including one very friendly retired Italian-Canadian), and enough people contributing to the town coffers to maintain a sort of economic and cultural stability. And the canyon view of Stromboli is inspiring, and the old town of Amantea below is sufficiently palazzo’d and coastal colorful to make this our likely return spot. I also fought a small fire that made me some friends on my first night there. But I digress.
It would be interesting to understand what the proportional money "up tick" is relative to the tourist number e.g visitor taxes , property tax on Airbnb etc - does the monetary inflow stay in the area for the overall benefit of the year round local population. Other examples around Europe, highlight the general imbalance, that pure focus on tourist income seems to be accelerating.
When people are planning their first trip to Italy they obviously want to see all the big, famous sites.
For people who have been traveling for a long time, going to smaller cities and off-the-beaten-track places become very attractive.
But you have to be more adventurous, typically you need to drive to get to them, and need a little bit of facility with the language.
I’ve taken many of my friends to such places numerous times and they’ve really enjoyed them, but I understand why most Americans would shy away from doing so on their own.
I have been delighted by Vercelli, Pavia and Lecco, to name just a few places I've had the pleasure to visit on trips from Milan. I suppose I am lucky because I am in Italy frequently, and if you know it's going to be your only visit then you are naturally likely to want to see the biggest sights. But anyone fortunate to visit more than once would be well rewarded by skipping the most overwhelmed cities and seeking out some of the smaller towns, which still have beautiful art, beautiful buildings, beautiful food and beautiful people
Great article. I'm kind of doing my part, at least in Tuscany. I'm visiting each of the 6 provinces (well,I live in Livorno part of the year so it's more than a visit and I've written quite a few pieces about the city) that aren't as well known as Pisa, Siena, Florence, and Lucca (sniff....I remember when Lucca wasn't on the big tourist radar...sad). I visited Grosseto this year, will visit Massa-Carrara next year (and also take in Livorno's Effetto Venezia). It's a slow process, laugh, but I don't want to write about places I haven't seen or at least talked to other Tuscans about. If the people visiting Italy every year could spread themselves out to take in more of the amazing things around the country, tourism could stop exerting such pressure on a handful of places.
Italy has so much to see and do. It would take three lifetimes. Incredible diversity of huge national parks—mountains, grasslands, forests, wetlands, coastlines. It's "Wilderness" with a capital "W." You might not see an Italian for years. For outdoors people, this is the place to go. I highly recommend Tim Jepson's Wild Italy: A Traveller's Guide, to start your vacation planning.
Yep. Discovered La Sila and Pollino National Park. We were the first American guests at a new Bnb conversion in Civita that had the best architecture and food experience for the budget I’ve ever experienced. The young Italian married couple could also serve as backcountry and culture trek outfitters. Laino Borgo is a major whitewater destination now too.
STOP TELLING THEM ABOUT THIS!!!!
Last thing I want is Umbria turned into a low-rent Tuscany.
I suppose is like many countries, the capital andain cities of interest will always gather tourists.
When I made the decision at the end of my job not to go back to Angloland, I was talking to a friend about it, and he said, “Hilary, the one thing Italy will never do is bore you. You will spend the rest of your life investigating it.”
He knows me.
I agree with your map color gradient, and have moved from the obligatory dark brown to the rewarding mid-tones in the last 25 years.
The dark spot in the middle of Basilicata is Matera. Christ stopped at Eboli perhaps, but UNESCO did not. I will be back only because my 25th wedding anniversary falls on the feast day of San Eustachio the patron of this ancient city and we want to participate in the blessing of the silver anniversary couples in the cathedral.
It is beautiful and entertaining on the level of the big destinations now, and particularly popular with Italians at least in my first visit when it was hard to believe it was real. But since I visited there the first time 6 years ago it has crossed the line from a restored town to a restored museum/spa hybrid, at least by my metrics. Good for Matera but cari saluti from me.
“So some towns can genuinely be quiet for 10 months and then receive an overwhelming number of visitors in eight weeks.”
There is another kind of Calvino-worthy invisible city in one town I know. Lago (Calabria) above Amantea is virtually empty but for August. My understanding from relatives of locals is that it doesn’t fill with tourists in August so much as returning expatriates from the cities and countries to the north.
The town has largely emptied or left one or two to anchor households year round, but the empty homes do not sell, as there is less demand value for that than to keep it open for the yearly town reunion, which I understand is a 24 hour fest and loud as Rome during that time. Near as I can tell the mayor (who currently is from the same local name-line as my wife) is responsible for keeping the empty street clean and infrastructure functional between the yearly re-population party. Appearances suggest they do a good job of this, and town hall is busy with citizenship applicants with displays celebrating famous town alumni including one I actually knew from LA.
So these August (as in both the month and in gravitas) re-patriots are not tourists, but owners of now second homes in the South. I don’t know how these Istats would show, but I find the phenomenon wonderfully poetic and worthy of study for a kind of sustainability. Superficial analysis suggests that enough people are resident year round to talk with me about it last week of September in the one open piazza cafe (including one very friendly retired Italian-Canadian), and enough people contributing to the town coffers to maintain a sort of economic and cultural stability. And the canyon view of Stromboli is inspiring, and the old town of Amantea below is sufficiently palazzo’d and coastal colorful to make this our likely return spot. I also fought a small fire that made me some friends on my first night there. But I digress.
It would be interesting to understand what the proportional money "up tick" is relative to the tourist number e.g visitor taxes , property tax on Airbnb etc - does the monetary inflow stay in the area for the overall benefit of the year round local population. Other examples around Europe, highlight the general imbalance, that pure focus on tourist income seems to be accelerating.
When people are planning their first trip to Italy they obviously want to see all the big, famous sites.
For people who have been traveling for a long time, going to smaller cities and off-the-beaten-track places become very attractive.
But you have to be more adventurous, typically you need to drive to get to them, and need a little bit of facility with the language.
I’ve taken many of my friends to such places numerous times and they’ve really enjoyed them, but I understand why most Americans would shy away from doing so on their own.
I have been delighted by Vercelli, Pavia and Lecco, to name just a few places I've had the pleasure to visit on trips from Milan. I suppose I am lucky because I am in Italy frequently, and if you know it's going to be your only visit then you are naturally likely to want to see the biggest sights. But anyone fortunate to visit more than once would be well rewarded by skipping the most overwhelmed cities and seeking out some of the smaller towns, which still have beautiful art, beautiful buildings, beautiful food and beautiful people
Great article. I'm kind of doing my part, at least in Tuscany. I'm visiting each of the 6 provinces (well,I live in Livorno part of the year so it's more than a visit and I've written quite a few pieces about the city) that aren't as well known as Pisa, Siena, Florence, and Lucca (sniff....I remember when Lucca wasn't on the big tourist radar...sad). I visited Grosseto this year, will visit Massa-Carrara next year (and also take in Livorno's Effetto Venezia). It's a slow process, laugh, but I don't want to write about places I haven't seen or at least talked to other Tuscans about. If the people visiting Italy every year could spread themselves out to take in more of the amazing things around the country, tourism could stop exerting such pressure on a handful of places.
Great article and map. I want to explore the lesser known places… and the popular places in the offest of off seasons. 😅