Solo Noi
As I head into my fourth week in Florence, I notice the ebb and flow of people in the streets, the updates to the shop windows and the shift in my own daily rhythm.
When I decided to spend February and March in one of the busiest tourist cities In Italy, if not in all of Europe, I expected to see mostly locals in the streets with perhaps a sprinkling of Italian teenagers on high school tours. That has been mostly true on weekdays, but I have been shocked to see the streets jammed with people on the weekends.
American university students are everywhere – more than 15,000 of them studying on the Florence campuses of 20 universities including Kent State, Syracuse University, NYU, Pepperdine and Tulane. I see them most often in the grocery store that I seem to visit every day. The line-ups to the cashier can stretch around the perimeter of the store during busy times and almost everyone in line is a young person speaking English.
Navigating the Ponte Vecchio to go to the grocery store or to my daily art history class in the Oltrarno is a challenge. The bridge is packed full of people stopping to check out the elaborate jewellery in the gold shops and to take selfies with the Arno as backdrop.
Our street, which leads directly to the Ponte Vecchio, is just as crowded and the Piazza della Signoria is a sea of tour groups, young families with kids in strollers and couples leading dogs (mostly dachshunds and boxers, as it turns out) through the throngs. You’ll hear a smattering of English and French – but most people are speaking Italian. Clearly the past spectacularly warm and sunny weekend attracted non-Florentines to town. And the locals aren’t very happy about it.
An artisan jewellery shop on one of the narrow side streets in our neighbourhood boasts a handmade sign that screams, in large red letters: Firenze muore. Florence is dying! The message blames the mayor of the city as well as the senator that represents it in the federal government, for selling out to “hit and run tourism” and international chains. It’s hard to argue when the main shopping streets are dominated by familiar names like Zara, Lush, Doc Marten and Benneton.
Last weekend’s sunny and unseasonably warm weather drew thousands of people to Florence – but we decided to spend Saturday in the lovely little walled town of Lucca, a 90-minute train ride away. It was a glorious day to walk the narrow streets and to explore the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, the public square built on the elliptical shape of the former second century Roman amphitheater.
After a long day of walking, we decided to taxi back to the apartment from the Santa Maria Novella train station. Our cab driver valiantly worked to navigate the streets filled with hundreds of people blithely walking in the middle of the road, ignoring sidewalks and the taxi nudging them to get through. She eloquently expressed her frustration.
“Solo noi abbiamo gelato! Solo noi abbiamo bistecca!”
Only we have gelato! Only we have steak!
And, as we passed the shop displaying a fully-stuffed pig in the window, “Solo noi abbiamo porchetta!”
But her greatest disdain was reserved for the man selling roasted chestnuts.
“Castagne a febbraio! Questa non è la stagione delle castagne! Dove si trovano le castagne in questo periodo dell'anno?”
Chestnuts in February! This isn’t the season for chestnuts! Where do you even get chestnuts at this time of year?
The streets have been quieter since the weekend wound down – but people still ignore the sidewalks and the Ponte Vecchio and grocery store are as busy as ever. As for me, my longer-term stay makes me feel less like a tourist and more like a local each day. I’m speaking Italian as much as possible, shopping for groceries almost daily and have discovered the local hardware store, the best place to get a sandwich made on schiacciata (Florence’s version of focaccia) and artisan rather than factory-made gelato.
I’m learning that Florence, like Venice, is struggling with tourism, both international and local, and that the independently-run shops I visited when I first started coming here have, one by one, been replaced by stores that can be found in any suburban shopping mall. But that doesn’t take away from the sheer magic, beauty and history of the city and the lovely people I’m meeting every day in the shops and cafes I’m so lucky to visit. And our cab driver was right. Solo Firenze è Firenze!
Thank you Adelina for sharing your adventures and experiences so vividly.
So interesting Adelina - an experience happening around the world in the age of fast tourism. Nice to see one can still take it slow, at least during the week.