Alpinista
100+ Posts
There was an article in the print edition Washington Post today about the massive drop in Chinese tourism to Italy due to the current coronavirus outbreak with specific mention of Bagnoreggio and the economic impact on the town. The article does not seem to appear in the electronic version. The piece made several references to "the past 10 years" and how the tourism sources had changed and the reaction of the sites visited (noted that some shopkeepers in Bagnoreggio were learning Mandarin phrases to welcome customers). The thought it brought to mind was how the impressions I carry of a place (was in Bagnoreggio 12 years ago) could be so different from what would be experienced now. It seems that the tourist traffic to the town has exploded over the years and what I remember as a very secluded and peaceful place to stroll may no longer be the case. I know that some conversations on this and the predecessor site pointed out how different some towns are (San Gimignano comes to mind) between the tour bus daytime hours and the evening/nighttime hours. I know personally how Lucca has changed in the 30+ years we have been visiting there with the once unseen tour groups now a regular mass moving down Via Fillungo with their ear pieces in place and guides leading the way. What this leads me to is a personal thought that I should do a better job of placing comments in perspective when I post -- time of year, who I was traveling with (big difference in the way my wife and I travel now compared to when we had infant children -- or the dreaded teenagers), type of travel (we've moved from tents and backpacks to far more comfortable quarters over the course of our marriage), and, of course, how far removed I am in time from when I formed my opinion.