Throughout 2022, I have seen quite a few articles criticizing the influx of tourists in Italy, the lack of creativity on destination, what a safe choice Italy is, and how it is played out. As someone who has spent significant amounts of time in Italy and love it so much that I have learned the language, these articles frustrate me. I find their authors to write in a manor that is condescending, dismissive, and more than a little elitist. Everyone should have the freedom to travel where they please as long as they do it respectfully and responsibly.
"Revenge" Travel in 2022
Many Americans that we ran into over the summer in Italy were on postponed trips. These families put deposits down on outings and purchased flights with no knowledge that Covid would hit and dash all 2020 hopes. Not all carriers approached passengers with the same offers. Some took vouchers, others accepted new dates. As traffic restrictions were extended, those tickets were pushed further and further down the road.
Italy opened up in June 2021 for travel, but by then most Americans had already made other plans. More than 70% of private industry employed Americans have less than 15 vacation days in the first five years with an employer. A lot of people carefully allocate those days to one big vacation and to the holidays. Finding out in June that your Italian dream vacation could happen doesn't negate that you already went to Mexico in May. That PTO has already been cashed for the year.
And that doesn't take into account the estimated 9.6 million workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Many have been rehired since, but some employers have a waiting period to use your vacation - 90 days, 6 months, even a year. For those who found work after pandemic layoffs and closures, vacation eligibility may not have kicked in for the 2021 season. Naturally, these plans were pushed yet another year.
The surge of 2022 summer travel was felt across Europe, not just in Italy, and was a compounding factor of restricted access to Europe, postponed plans, and limited time off.
The Grand Tour
There is a reason that Americans are so fascinated by Italy, France, and Greece. The Grand Tour. If you said, "What's that?" you aren't alone. Unless you are really into history or watch way too many period pieces, it isn't on most of our radars.
The Grand Tour was a sort of finishing vacation for wealthy Britains and later Americans that sprung up in the seventeenth century and lasted through the nineteenth century. The goal of the trip was exposure to antiquity and the best of Renaissance art and architecture. Greece and Rome as heartlands of the ancient world along with the cradle of the Renaissance, Florence, were pillars of the itinerary.
Italy and France had long served as places of study for architecture and art for many of the masters. The trend got a significant boost by the 14th Earl of Arundel, Thomas Howard. Known as the collector early, he traveled extensively with his family and brought home significant collections of paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The family title, still extant, dates to the early twelfth century and has long carried swag amongst the nobility. Most importantly, Howard was Catholic.
Richard Lassels, Catholic priest - studied at the Sorbonne and remained on the continent for a while. Connection to the Howards. Wrote A Voyage to Italy, published posthumously in 1670.
Italy Isn't Just the Big Four
Italy exists far beyond the realms of Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice. While these cities have so much to offer in their own right, they also represent very different cultural identities that exist within the Italian nation.
Indeed, the concept of an Italian nation is a shockingly new one. Unification took place in 1871. Just 150 years ago in an area that has enjoyed more than seven millennia of rich cultural heritage. It is a drop in the bucket. Even with standardized Italian, there are many regional dialects, even independent languages like Sicilian spoken within the borders. They are a reflection for the lengthy independence of city-states.
Adventure: A Choice
The claims that Italy isn't adventurous enough is a load of tosh. Any destination can be as comfortable or as adventurous as you want to make it. I don't see articles spearing Americans for enjoying all-inclusive resorts in Mexico. These are safe, predictable experiences that many select for the desire to relax and reset, not to push themselves on an adventure getaway. Could you make Mexico more adventurous? Of course!
Italy is the same. The safe itinerary is the standard 10-day trip hitting Rome, Florence, and Venice: on a tour group with others who speak English, with preselected restaurants with familiar food, and American style hotels. Is this wrong? Not necessarily aside from concerns of overtourism. But it doesn't begin to touch the depths of the Italian culture and language. Get out into the neighborhoods and countryside where people don't speak English. Try street food like lampredotto and suppli. Taste pasta stuffed with nettles, risotto soaked in squid ink, and stuffed zucchini blossoms. Stay in an agriturismo with a local family.
Travel is about experience. While I will always encourage our Toteable Family to try to dig in to a place and test out new things, it is ultimately about the experience you want. And haughty travel writers shouldn't tell you that your interest in a location isn't valid.
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