Bologna has turned into “a hell for tourists”. This is what he wrote on New York Times the Italian journalist Ilaria Maria Sala, originally from the Emilian capital and now resident in Hong Kong.
In the article published today, Friday 9 August, it is highlighted how in recent years in Bologna the tourism sector has grown excessively, causing an overall decrease in the quality of life.
And the finger is pointed at the exaggerated use of local gastronomy – especially mortadella – as a driving force for a mass of tourists who, stopping at the surface of good food, end up not fully appreciating the history and culture of the city of Bologna.
“A little more than 10 years ago,” Sala writes, “Bologna, my hometown in Italy, wasn’t considered a major tourist destination. Group tours would come, but the city was mostly known for having one of Europe’s oldest universities. Its cuisine, like tortellini and tagliatelle, was also a draw, but in a subdued way.” Now, however, “low-cost airlines, short-term rentals and social media have changed everything.”
“Nowadays – we read in the article of the New York Times – Bologna is well on its way to becoming a fully-fledged tourist city, and should definitely be avoided on the main streets.”
Many property owners – Sala points out – have converted their apartments into short-term rental accommodations, “which has increased rents and pushed students further away from the university, towards smaller cities on the outskirts”. But according to the journalist, the transformation into a tourist city is also evident in another detail: “The consumption of quantities of mortadella that numb the mind and stop the heart”.
“The center has changed completely,” the article continues. “The streets around the historic main square were lined with old stationery shops; a favorite sold fountain pens, ink in every color, and every hand-bound notebook you could dream of.” But recently, the shop was converted into an “Antica salumeria” that “is part of a chain.” And “right across the street, in what I believe was a jewelry store, is a second self-proclaimed antica salumeria in the same chain.”
Sala then focuses on the groups of organized tourists, a “crowd of people marching behind the leaders with microphones and small flags raised”: “These groups,” he notes, “usually stop in front of old shops that have given up and now display rounds and rounds of mortadella in the windows.”
In addition to mortadella, the journalist continues New York Times“other newly minted traditions have sprung up”: “A new shop, also near the main square, sells fried tortellini in a paper cone, claiming it’s a local specialty (more out of aspiration than propriety). I see tourists walking around holding paper cones that slowly melt in grease, lifting small fried tortellini to their mouths with a disposable fork. They seem to enjoy it (after all, frying makes everything tastier) but I wonder if they think they’re getting a very local experience.”
“Since the 13th century,” Sala concludes, “Bologna has been variously known as La Dotta (The Learned) because of its university, La Grassa (The Fat) because of the fertile land that surrounded it, and La Turrita (The Turreted) because of its towers. It was also sometimes known as La Rossa (The Red) because of the color of its walls and its past as a stronghold of the Communist Party. One of the oldest towers still standing, the Garisenda, was built in the 12th century and, together with the Torre degli Asinelli, is the non-mortadella symbol of Bologna. Now the Garisenda, which has been leaning alarmingly for centuries, could be at risk of falling. For centuries, Bologna’s erudite, fat, and towers have been in splendid harmony with each other. Now the students have been uprooted and the tower is in trouble. Only the fat reigns supreme. Do we really have to travel this way?”
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