Italy Beyond the Crowds: Avoiding Overtourism

On a trip a few years ago to Sicily, despite some reservations, we decided to go to Taormina, a town that has long been famous and has only become more so because of being featured in The White Lotus. We thought that the off-season time of year and the slightly overcast weather would allow us to enjoy ourselves without a crush of tourists.

The experience was pretty awful. The main street resembled the Duty Free shop in the Rome airport. The food was mediocre and over-priced. At one point, our son, who loves volcanoes, observed looking at the crowds, “It’s like a pyroclastic flow of people.”

As a travel advising firm, Italy Within Reach works deliberately not to contribute to the problem of overtourism. We steer travelers away from the most saturated destinations while still developing itineraries that allow them to experience Italy’s beauty, culture, and famous sites.

In some cases, managing overtourism as a traveler is a matter of timing: when to travel during the year or even what time of day to visit a particular place. In other cases, it means avoiding a destination altogether.

Large cities often have more capacity to absorb visitors, as their centers extend far beyond the landmarks that attract the majority of tourists. This is why it is still possible, for example, to visit Rome without being engulfed by people the entire time. We direct travelers to stay in less-touristy parts of the city and help them appreciate the time spent getting to major sites as part of their Roman experience.

While managing an over-touristed environment as a traveler is often possible in large cities, the same is frequently not true in smaller towns that have become popular very quickly. Many have central streets that are clogged with people and lined with generic, high-end stores that sell goods one can buy at online retailers. In these cases, Italy Within Reach will advise travelers not to go.

Italy offers extraordinary beauty that is distinctive and rare. There is no need for travelers to subject themselves to experiences shaped almost entirely by mass tourism or to contribute to the erosion of local culture and rising costs for residents that has frustrated so many Italians.