After 32 years, I finally went to Florence — I was saddened by what I saw

Florence is a small and fragile city (Picture: Alice Murphy)

When my mother and I set out on a rail journey across central Italy, the place we were most excited to visit was Florence.

The cradle of the Renaissance, Tuscany’s capital is one of Europe’s greatest art cities, home to world-famous masterpieces.

There are frescoes by Giotto, canvases by Botticelli, and sculptures by Michelangelo — to say nothing of the opera, classical music and culinary scenes that thrive within its ancient walls.

But tragedy has befallen this exquisite city.

Hit-and-run tourism has torn the heart out of its historic centre.

Crowds gathered for sunset at Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence (Picture: Alice Murphy)

As a travel editor, I am well acquainted with overtourism.

I’ve interviewed locals from Mallorca to Mykonos about how it has affected their lives. I spend my days writing and commissioning stories about places that are actively seeking visitors rather than curtailing them.

And still nothing prepared me for what I saw in Florence.

Disneyland

Arriving in mid-April, I had hoped we’d be ahead of peak season crowds.

Yet from the moment we rolled in to Santa Maria Novella station, we found ourselves in a suffocating Disneyland.

Intense tourism is diluted in big cities like Rome or Milan. But Florence, a city you can cross on foot in about 30 minutes, is fragile and easily congested. The historic centre – a UNESCO world heritage site – occupies a very small space.

Florence’s historic centre (Picture: Emiko Davies)

Tour groups blocked the narrow streets. Influencers and wannabe Instagrammers vied to capture the perfect photo. Queues of people sweated in the sun outside viral panino shops.

In the Piazza del Duomo, a line hours long and hundreds deep snaked around Santa Maria del Fiore, one of the largest churches in the world.

Everyone looked miserable.

On the hillside at Piazzale Michelangelo, said to be the best sunset spot in the city, there was no room to sit and even less room to breathe.

Hordes of tourists and students from the nearby American University stood cheek-by-jowl, only short of climbing over each other for a better view. Not to enjoy it, it would seem. Just to take a picture.

I should reiterate that Florence is magnificent. And it still has corners that are calm and authentic.

Queues starting to build at Santa Maria del Fiore and the baptistery (Picture: Alice Murphy)

The Bardini Gardens, the Scuola del Cuoio leather factory and the Sant’Ambrogio market, for instance, are all wonderful spots that are well worth visiting and where locals still go.

But there is no denying that mass tourism has altered this city’s DNA.

‘Florentines don’t want to come into the historic centre anymore,’ Emiko Davies, who has lived in Florence since 2005, tells Metro.

‘Parking is a problem. Crowds are a problem. They don’t want to deal with all the tourists.

‘They’re just pouring into the city, making it unlivable for people who live there. It’s the same as in Venice, with the narrow streets. I’ve watched old ladies with their shopping trollies trying to battle tourists and not be able to get past. It’s like being hit by an ocean wave.’

The Sant’Ambrogio market, authentic and still a beloved local haunt (Picture: Alice Murphy)

During the pandemic, Emiko, an Australian-born author and food journalist,moved her young family about 40 minutes away, closer to Pisa, a decision driven by soaring rent and stifling conditions.

‘I always lived smack bang in the centre, a stone’s throw from the Ponte Vecchio [Old Bridge] or the Uffizi Gallery. One of the reasons I moved to Florence was because I loved being in the centre, but you can’t ride your bike anymore. You can’t go down certain streets and if you do, you have to turn your body to get through the crowds.’

Fewer than 40,000 now live in this precious part of town, which Emiko says has been overrun with Airbnb apartments and eateries.

Most residents feel frustrated by the impossibility of leading a normal life in their city, she says, and by the erosion of its unique identity.

Viral gimmicks

Tourism is an essential source of income for Florence and other Italian cities. We are all, at one time or another, tourists ourselves.

It’s the style of tourism, which encourages people to trample the city without contributing anything, that is the problem.

‘We all rely on tourism in Florence. The issue is not individual tourists, or tour groups, it’s the people who are profiting from promoting s**t quality, inauthentic experiences,’ says restaurateur Giulio Picchi.

Peace and quiet at the Scuola di Cuoio leather factory (Picture: Alice Murphy)

Take wine windows — tiny, arched portals carved into Renaissance palaces where you can order a drink through the wall.

These buchette del vino are living relics of a time when the Florentine elite served wine while bypassing taxes and avoiding the plague.

But while some are historic, dating back to the 16th century, many are cheap imitations, created to capitalise on TikTok and Instagram trends.

Social media has a lot to answer for, Emiko says.

In her early years in Florence, she lived on Via dei Neri, now known as the home of All’Antico Vinaio, a viral sandwich shop that allegedly sells the best in the city. It attracts a permanent queue that clogs up the street.

‘I lived right opposite,’ Emiko recalls. ‘It used to be my local, back in 2010. Then, because of the TripAdvisor algorithm, it got boosted to the number one restaurant in Florence.’

That was absurd, she says, because there is no toilet, ‘about three stools’ and scarcely room to stand.

Then and now: All’Antico Vinaio in 2024 (left) and in 2014 (right) (Picture: Emiko Davies)

Viral gimmicks and a carousel of hit-and-run tourists have changed the face of Florence’s centre. In its place, Emiko says, is an empty shell.

‘That street where that sandwich place is, that used to be a real neighbourhood. There were businesses, there was a fruit and veg shop, a dry cleaners. There were two butchers and a bakery.

‘If you walk there now, none of those places exist. It’s become this monoculture of shops which are all clearly only for tourists.’

Staggered solution?

In the past decade, over 1,000 businesses have shut down in Florence, Emiko says. And she has seen the cost.

‘You lose the character of a city. If you’ve got no practical things for the people who live there, where are they going to go? Obviously they’re going to move out.’

Locals may be leaving, but just like Paris and Rome, tourists will always want to come to Florence. So what can be done?

In recent years, authorities have taken steps to curb overtourism, introducing measures including a ban on key boxes used by short-term rental landlords and tour guide loudspeakers.

Cecilie Hollberg, director of Florence’s famous Galleria dell’Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David, has made sweeping changes to make the museum more appealing to locals.

One of these was reducing the maximum number in tour groups.

Emiko wants to see that approach rolled out across the historic centre. ‘I think if there was a way to stagger them throughout the day and just say, “sorry, we’ve got already hundreds of people coming right now. Can you come in a few hours?” I don’t have the answer, but there must be a way.’

Others say it comes down to short-term rentals.

Danielle Oteri, an art historian and travel consultant for Italian destinations, believes the only solution is for the local government to regulate holiday apartments.

‘Only Florence, or Barcelona or Prague, can decide whether to put its citizens first by regulating short-term rentals or acknowledging the decision to let the city centre be a theme park,’ she says.

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