No strolling in Florence

Good luck with that. 🤣

I'm sort of wondering how the heck they're going to check everyone in those off-limits areas?
No passeggiata? Neanche per sogno! (slaps forehead)
I get the no eating on the antiquities thing though.

I can understand their frustration, people can be very inconsiderate. I’m trying to be polite with my wording. If we get to go in September we’ll plan for early in the week.

As a guest in their city all I can do is shake my head and respect their rules, but I have to wonder where all this money actually goes. 22% VAT, 4.80-5.80 Euro per person hotel and tour tax; I've also read about an entry fee tax? Once they set up a bureaucracy to collect and distribute the tax, I have to wonder how much is actually left to solve the problem, or does it just go into general revenue as the politicians pretend they're doing something? A typical result of tax happy governments around the world.

Thank you for sharing this news. As a solo traveler, the passeggiata in Italy is very important to me in the evening. I’m still trying to decide between a 3-week itinerary to Italy or France for September.

I’m definitely supportive of reducing the eating on monument & church steps and keeping the cities & parks clean as we visit them.

We enjoyed our fall trip to Italy a couple years ago. But, we could definitely see an attitude of "We are so sick of tourists". Especially in CT. I get that, I was over some of the tourists, too. But, enter the pandemic, and they were really struggling and is some cases, begging tourists to come back. I don't think they should be grateful to me for coming, but maybe when locals and their governments think about these types of rules, they realize that they still should be good hosts and understand the role of tourists in their economy.

It sounds like this rule against casual strolling might just be a COVID rule, and if its a temporary measure, then I can understand, but otherwise, it doesn't seem to be very welcoming.

where all this money actually goes. 22% VAT, 4.80-5.80 Euro per person hotel and tour tax;

don't you have sales tax in Alberta?

No resort taxes? No hotel tax? No city sales tax?

Guys,
I doubt that incidents like these:

• https://video.corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/santo-spirito-momento-cui-vengono-ribaltate-basi-cemento/f183cef4-d0fe-11eb-a571-db5688f4ab9a
• https://video.corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/santo-spirito-ci-risiamo-musica-balli-sagrato-basilica/e3fa21fe-d322-11eb-b191-7a435620e7fe

have something to do with "strolling". And the local press agrees with me, they all write about fighting pernicious nightlife, not ice-cream eating families.

More: since the punks in the first video at Santo Spirito are destroying equipment paid with tax money, no tax money can do anything about it. Except the money used to purchase tasers.

I doubt you enjoy your evening strolls while drunk, bringing speakers and instruments with you like the crowd in the 2nd video.

Quite surprisingly The paragraph about Eike Schmidt's proposal is more adherent to what actually happened. Even if German, the boss of the Uffizi can't levy taxes.

Not yet, sometimes I think that If he applied for citizenship Roberto's fellow countryman could appoint him "New Grand-duke". He's managing the Museum like a Medici.

Isn't the passagiata at 7pm anymore? It used to be, and can be done and dusted by the time this ban starts at 9pm.

I skimmed the article, but aren't the street vendors out because of tourists' propensity for eating on the go instead of the time honoured tradition of enjoying their food at a table? Doesn't Florence already have a ban to eating in the street - I seem to recall they at least tried it pre-covid. And then there is Venice's need the same ban...because of the mess and enhanced costs to cleaning up after the messy littering hordes...and the irreparable damage to historical structures. I suspect like other over the top bans and changes, this will be short lived or easy to work around. Most tourists will just be walking to their restaurant for dinner, or walking back from it. Some may choose to hang out with the locals in the street, or just move to the appropriate designated eatery outside space.

And no, thanks to the oil industry, Alberta does NOT have provincial sales tax, but does have the federal GST - so 5% instead of 13-15% of the other provinces :-) Allan will feel the pinch anywhere outside his province.

Thanks, Dario, for giving us the local insight into this article - appreciate it very much as I’m planning to be in Italy in September, if possible,

Maris, the "passeggiata" comment was sort of a tongue-in-cheek. 😉

Dario, good to know that civilized ice-cream eaters aren't the target...as long as they keep their drippy cones off the stones!

don't you have sales tax in Alberta?

No resort taxes? No hotel tax? No city sales tax?

No provincial or city sales tax. Federal sales tax is 5%.

I'm all for tourist taxes, IF they're allocated properly. However my point is suspicion if it goes to where it is supposed to. An example, our previous provincial government imposed a significant carbon tax but it came out later that the money was placed into general revenue and not specifically allocated for climate change initiatives. I always wonder if the money trail is followed, where does it lead.