Italy has been at the epicentre of discussions about overtourism for a while now, but Venice and Rome aren’t the only cities where high visitor numbers are starting to take their toll on local life.
Florence recently banned all new short-term lets from opening in its historic centre, in an effort to dissuade local people from moving away. And now, the city council has announced that another measure will soon be implemented in the same area.
Florence is set to ban self check-in keyboxes. The boxes are often used by short-term letting hosts to remove the need for a face-to-face handover with guests and facilitate flexible arrival times, but they’ve been condemned as eye-sores that pose a risk to security.
Officials have argued that getting rid of the keyboxes will encourage a better balance of visitors and residents, and Massimo Torelli, a spokesperson for the ‘Let’s save Florence to live in it’ campaign, told the Independent that he hoped visitor numbers would drop from 15,000 to between 7-8,000.
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Right now, he says the keyboxes are ‘everywhere, on the bicycle racks and on the street-light poles … Florence is dying of uncontrolled tourism.’
But not for much longer: the Mayor of Florence Sara Furano told local TV that any keyboxes still affixed to buildings by next week will be removed by the council, and fines of up to €400 will be imposed on people who don’t want to comply.
And this isn’t the only restriction set to be implemented – Mayor Funaro’s cabinet approved a full, 10-point plan that would not only ban keyboxes, but would also aim to curb the use of loudspeakers in Florence’s historic centre by tour guides, among other measures.
While we’re on the subject, here’s how to be a better tourist in Europe’s most visited cities.
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