An English-speaking traveller has earned infamy in one of Europe’s most revered cities after a night of drinking got out of hand.
From the man who urinated all over his business class cabin to the Chinese ‘time traveller’ who got their flight cancelled, it is readily apparent that tourists are all too willing to get rowdy, showing rampant disrespect to those people and places around them. However, a young lady enjoying some time in Europe may have just become the Italian Tourist board’s most-wanted.
Gary Leff over at View From The Wing sums up the complicated relationship between tourists and tourist hotspots well: “I’m sceptical of most claims of over-tourism […] the great historic attractions of civilization belong to everyone. […] And locals often want tourist dollars – and only wealthier tourists – while providing as little as possible in return.” Occasionally, however, people go so far that it becomes difficult to defend this position…
WATCH: The woman in action…
Diving Into Controversy
Florence gets over 11 million visitors every single year, so inevitably you’re going to get a handful of unruly types who are always going to kick up some kind of fuss wherever they take their holidays. However, the somewhat jaded 366,000 inhabitants of the city are liable, and quite understandably so, to fixate on these, seeing the bad apples as being the shadowy underbelly of a tourism industry out of control.
So, this blonde, English-speaking tourist getting her kit off and jumping into the fountain that sits at the centre of the 15th-century Piazza Santo Spirito has, of course, gone viral. Wearing only black undies, she tries to encourage bystanders to join her in the water, but they seem sensible enough to gauge that this may not have been her smartest idea to date. Reactions online were, to say the least, mixed…
These comments — which have been translated from Italian to the best of my limited ability — all seem to centre on the lack of cleanliness the act represents, as opposed to any kind of affront at the violation of cultural heritage: “Good job, in that fountain you wash only bums and dogs”, said one. “Do they have no sense of hygiene?”, said another. The most damning of all was this one: “She will probably get syphilis… How disgusting.”
Far From A One-Off
We have no reason to believe that the latter comment is medically accurate, but it does underscore how gross that Italians, and I imagine many of our readers, will find this brazen act. Something that Italians found similarly brazen was an incident last month where a different tourist — also a blonde, English-speaking woman — was seen performing “lewd” acts with the Bacchus statue near Ponte Vecchio, a modern replica of the 16th Century work by sculptor Giambologna.
None of this makes for easy reading, though it makes it all too easy to understand how travellers come to get such a and reputation among their host nations, especially the long-suffering cultural hotspots of Western Europe. Some have had enough and are taking action: Last month, the mayor of Barcelona pledged to eliminate short-term tourist lets in the city within five years, and a slew of other cities have suggested they may follow in his wake.
All of this is to say: enjoy your holidays, but try not to be an insufferable d*ckhead.