Is overtourism killing Florence's dining scene?

And what we can do about it

A few weeks ago I posted a couple of stories about a restaurant closing in Florence citing “hit and run” tourism (and yes, there is a reference to a certain panino shop) as one of the downfalls and I got many interesting conversations from those stories, I could see it coming together as something to talk about more broadly than in an Instagram story or two. In fact, Corriere della Sera reached out to me to ask me to turn it into an article as well (here in Italian), and I immediately started talking to other restauranteurs in and out of Florence about this and the result is a really interesting conversation about overtourism, hospitality and more.

First of all, let me introduce the scene. The restaurant that is closing is Essenziale (this is the last chance to grab a booking before they shut their doors to guests on 6 August), which has long been seen as one of the first (they opened in 2016) and therefore leading, innovative restaurants in the Florentine dining scene. Sitting in Piazza Cestello by the river in the hip, San Frediano neighbourhood of Florence, it was a surprise for many to hear of the closure but what created a conversation around the closure was chef Simone Cipriani’s interview where he says, “Florence has become a carousel for hit and run tourists.”

“There were once many of us doing cool things in the centre [of Florence], far from the requests of mass tourism, and we had our own clients. Now we are becoming a “showcase city” like Venice and it’s becoming more difficult to maintain ethics and integrity in hospitality. The request has changed.” — Simone Cipriani

The closure of a restaurant is complex and obviously there are many reasons, also personal ones or financial ones (though Cipriani says, “It’s not even a question of numbers, which in the end with a few somersaults you can make ends meet, it’s the possibility to share ideas and values that is what is missing lately”).

I spoke to Giulio Picchi, the owner of the iconic Florentine restaurant Cibreo about the news and his thoughts on overtourism in Florence and how it affects the dining scene. “It’s easy to say there’s too much tourism, but this is a city that lives on tourism. The problem is more to do with the way we travel today: short trips, no depth. But tourism is a great fortune.”

Cibreo, I should point out, is in a very special area, though, on the edge of the city, next to the only true local market of Florence, Sant’Ambrogio. There are no huge museums or sights that draw throngs of people to that neighbourhood and so it has always remained a real quarter for Florentines; it is still residential. Alessandro Frassica of ‘Ino, one of my favourite places for a high quality panino in the centre of Florence, is down a side street right in the centre of the tourism vortex: two steps from the Ponte Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery and Piazza della Signoria. What Frassica describes to me is what he witnesses every day just outside his shop: “It is chaos.”

What he refers to is an increase of tourists behaving very badly (perfect example, the young tourist who, on July 16th climbed the statue of Giambologna’s Baccus and began mimicking sexual acts on the statue). The intense tourism that you see in a small city like Florence (population 350,000 in a historical centre that is densely packed, you could cross it on foot in about 30 minutes) is diluted in bigger cities like Rome or Milan. But Florence, like Venice, sees the same number of tourists and is therefore more congested. In just the first 5 months of 2024 (so not even counting “high season”), there were 12 million visitors in the region.

“When people arrive, they breathe a sigh of relief,” Frassica says, of his clients, who are largely ones who are looking for quality and refuge from the chaos outside (I do this too, exactly in this spot, if I have to be in the centre). “Food has become a destination for travelers but you have to make a huge effort to understand what are the genuine offers and what is fake,” he says, going on to say that food has become a caricature of Italian culture. Never-ending signs advertising spritzes in Venice, or cannoli in Palermo are now unavoidable.

When you look around Florence and see the lines of tourists (only tourists line up in Italy, don’t people realise?) they are often waiting in line at one “viral” panino shop that is ruining an entire street of Florence (see my article here from 2021). I used to live on this street, Via dei Neri, 14 years ago when this panino shop was just a baby and so I have seen all the damage it has done. Or the tourists are lining up at fake “wine windows” which are probably the most ridiculous tourist gimmick to date, not to mention the most inefficient way to get served a glass of wine or a spritz. I won’t even go into it in this post but please, please avoid these fake experiences.

Why do people line up for things? Presumably the number one reason is because it is something totally unique that you cannot find elsewhere — well, in Florence there are great panini shops all over the city, but also you can find these viral panini now in LA, Las Vegas, New York, Rome, Naples and in three locations in Milan, to name just a few. Why line up for something you can get all over the world? To take a photo of a “viral” panino to add to the noise on social media?

I have heard of people taking trips planned entirely around social media. No longer are people just literally getting lost, wandering and discovering with all their senses, it seems that many people travel through social media, constantly following GPS on their phones and trying to snap the “right” photographs to prove on their own social media that they have indeed been to this place, essentially copying the photos of all the things they have seen on Instagram and TikTok.

This image above of my once beloved Via dei Neri and the crushing panino crowds is from

Chandi Wyant

’s Paradise of Exiles newsletter, which discusses overtourism in Florence and hits all the points I too had prepared for this article and have been going on about for years to anyone who will listen!

I am constantly tagged by caring people (thank you!) on influencers’ posts about the “must have” sandwich in Florence. The latest was a post by an Australian personality and television presenter, Chrissie Swan, who has 300,000 followers where she boasts about how rather than stand in line, she cleverly skipped the queue by ordering delivery (!) to her Airbnb (!!!!!!) and features an image of her Antico Vinaio sandwich (the reason she came to Florence) next to a bowl of balsamic vinegar (another story all together but: why?!). Her caption reads:

“Florence: You are too hot for me to queue at for the Mortadella Focaccia I came here especially for. Luckily I can download the local food delivery app and make a one off purchase! AMAZING FOCACCIA AND DELIVERED TO ME AT THE AIRBNB IN 20 MINUTES!”

chrissieswan

A post shared by @chrissieswan

I cannot get over how much this kind of post highlights everything that is wrong with the way we live and travel today, but it is also so irresponsible with no thought or care about the wider consequences for the people who have to live in this overcrowded city. In just one Instagram post, this Australian influencer has managed to tell yet more people to eat at this one viral panino shop while promoting delivery services and Airbnb, all of which weigh on the residents and quality of life in Florence, not to mention simply ruin it for other visitors too.

First, delivery services are a spiky topic in Florence. I personally do not use them, it’s not very Italian to use them, in fact the whole concept of takeaway is relatively new to Italians, you’ll notice no one even takes away coffee (other than takeaway pizza, take away was virtually unheard of in Florence before covid forced restaurant closures and those in the business had to try takeaway as an option to keep their business going). Deliverers are notoriously underpaid and have no rights, often calling out delivery companies and protesting, such as when Uber Eats suddenly dropped all their deliveries in Florence. Florentine restauranteurs are also against the use of delivery as they can make only 40% what they would if clients were to eat there. It’s not something I would ever support, no matter how “convenient”.

Secondly, Airbnb. Its effects have been devastating on Florence. It’s one of the reasons we were forced to move away (actually a move I do not regret one bit!). Here are some numbers from a recent Guardian article quoting Florence’s mayor Dario Nardella, to give you an idea of what has happened:

“In 2016, we had just under 6,000 apartments listed on Airbnb; today we have almost 14,378,” he said, noting that during that time the average cost of ordinary monthly residential rents had leapt 42%. This year, prices have increased by 15.1%, Nardella said. “The 40,000 Florentines who live in the centre are complaining about finding themselves, all of a sudden, living in apartment-hotels,” he added.

The result of the rampant Airbnb-ifying of Florence and increasingly high rental prices means that also shops have faced rental increases. The city has become one giant outdoor mall of same-y shops, stores and chains that you will find anywhere in the world. The little bottegas and characteristic shops of streets like Via dei Neri have disappeared because of Airbnb and this panino shop. La Repubblica recently published a piece on the closure of shops in Florence’s historical centre where “only those who sell food or are for tourists survive.” Bookshops, hardware stores, practical homeware shops and clothing stores are all disappearing — over the past decade, 1000 businesses like this have closed in Florence.

If people are coming to Florence and their number one meal is a panino, what does that mean for the other restaurants that they could also experience? And if the restaurants close — the good ones, the ones that care and have thought and philosophy behind what they do — what does that leave for Florentines and tourists alike?

Over dinner with Faith Willinger, American food writer who has lived in Florence for over half a century, she pointed out to me that in Florence, the closure of Essenziale shows another problem with a city that has so many more tourists than residents, which is that “restaurants only cook for those who aren’t coming back.”

For a city to thrive, to not empty out and become some kind of soulless amusement park, there has to be services and spaces for residents. “If the places that have an identity diminish, that is a pity, it is a quality place less for the Florentines,” notes Cibreo’s Giulio Picchi, who is a champion of defending spaces for Florentines as the organiser of the Festival of Sant’Ambrogio, a celebration of his neighbourhood aimed at residents. “Tourism is a positive thing,” he insists, but there have to be little places for residents too, “From the open air cinema to gardens to libraries to places to take kids after school. If there are none of these places thought of specifically for citizens, the risk is that we have to accept the critique that this is a city museum. These places need to be protected.”

It is a sentiment echoed by many Florentines, including Cecilie Hollberg, the German director of the Accademia Gallery in Florence, home to Michelangelo’s David:

“But all of this tourism must be managed, otherwise it stops being a resource and becomes only a problem. And over the years Florence has gradually lost parts of its identity as it has lost its citizens – fewer than 40,000 now live in the historic centre, which is overrun with Airbnb apartments and eateries. Most Florence residents feel profoundly frustrated by the impossibility of leading a normal life in their city. Their precious jewel must be protected and not sold off and compromised any further.”

In this Guardian piece, Hit and Run Tourism is Tearing the Heart out of Florence, Cecilie Hollberg talks about how she manages the crowds in the gallery and how Florence could benefit from a similar management: “Slower tours, smaller groups, better signage and orientation, de-seasonalisation; distribution of visitors, longer openings; these things have been transformative. They also benefit the city and its inhabitants.”

What are the other solutions? Tourists behaving badly, everyone wanting to eat the one same panino, the good places closing. It spells disaster for the future of Florence.

Perhaps the government can be inspired by what Japan is doing to combat the record numbers of tourists that they have also experienced post-covid. The cost of flights has increased, along with train travel and even tickets to important tourist sites.

Some restaurants in the most crowded quarters of Tokyo have begun implementing a tourist price and a locals price on their menus — after all, they have to find staff who can speak other languages, they have to spend more time explaining the menu to tourists. It is a measure that I personally support and wouldn’t mind paying at all.

Read more, Time Out Tokyo: Japan Considers Raising Prices to Counter Over Tourism and the Weak Yen

Read more, SBS: All the Places that Don’t Want you to Visit

The Japanese government are also promoting sites and visits to other places, not just the same destinations of Tokyo and Kyoto. Decentralisation is a solution that could help Florence too, not only restaurants, but museums, cultural events, congested travel hubs and more. Japan is even blocking popular selfie spots that are congesting small towns, which reminds me of the 300 euro fine in Portofino being implemented to stop tourists loitering for selfies in two picturesque photo spots that have become popular thanks to Instagram. Here’s a Forbes article about this but just please dismiss the author’s terrible suggestion to visit the delicate Cinque Terre to avoid the crowds of Portofino and instead read

Chandi Wyant

‘s Part 1 We Need to talk about Overtourism, which focuses on the Cinque Terre. Just to give you a taste of it:

I overheard in the aisle of Costo the other day, two women talking. As soon as I heard the stumbling pronunciation of Cinque Terre, I paused nearby with my cart, pretending to be interested in men’s pants.

Woman A had recently been to the Cinque Terre and was telling Woman B, (who she’d clearly bumped into in Costco) that she just had to go to the Sinky Terra. Woman B apparently was planning a European trip but had not decided where to go.

I very much wanted to interject and say, no, you don’t have to go there. There are 300 kilometers of coast in Liguria.

I am actually writing this from Liguria right now and I’m only 13km from the Cinque Terre but I refuse to visit. I don’t want to add to the pressure that those fragile villages are already under, I don’t want to be part of the crush and I don’t even want to experience it with my family. It’s ridiculously hot out there, it’s August, every beach and restaurant is full to the brim. I’d rather sit on the quiet mountainside, where I can see the Ligurian sea and easily visit one of the other beautiful towns and beaches nearby, Bonassola, Levanto, Framura or Moneglia are all just a moment away.

Saying all this, do visit Florence.

I can totally understand why 12 million+ people want to experience the Renaissance city. But here are some suggestions (and loads of links!) on how to make it easier for yourself and the city too, to travel better here: visit during cool seasons, consider staying or dining outside of Florence too, don’t add yourself to a long queue, and maybe, just go back to the old school way of wandering and exploring.

Remember those days when we didn’t have smart phones, GPS and social media? And maybe we had a guide book, but we mostly explored by wandering, with our heads up and looking around? I don’t want to be too nostalgic about it, I know that times change and mostly a lot of people travel through social media now but perhaps there is still a way to try to “get lost” and wander and not plan everything, just find things by simply coming across them. Imagine how much better it will be to share your finds with your friends about your trip — tell them about the quiet, out of the way places you discovered on your trip that you can only find here, the places that are unique, that were special. How much better is a story that goes, “I just stumbled across this wonderful place…” than “I went to that place on TikTok….”?

What are other ways to travel more responsibly in places like Florence?

I’m unlocking this previously paywalled piece I wrote exactly one year ago with some more thoughts and suggestions:

And I am also unlocking this post on 30 favourite Florentine eats so it can be shared: