Tourist rip off Italy
Have you been to Italy? I mean, did you travel the country of Da Vinci and Michelangelo?
If yes, what do you think of it? Isn’t it a beautiful country? Tuscany, Amalfi Coast, Cinque Terre, Rome, Venice and Florence. Aren’t those some of the most beautiful and interesting places in Europe?
Yes they are. So, what did you think about the costs? How much you paid for being there and traveling around. I mean, now more than ever before, most tourists got to think about the money they are going to spend on a holiday with the €uro rising so fast and high.
I have traveled Italy many times, and always tried to enjoy it while not spending too much money.
I hate to waste my hard earned money during my holiday, but still, I’d like to have a good time.
But then, having a good time in Italy means you have to through your money into the throat of the local tourist industry. You don´t remember where all your money went when you traveled the Italian boot? I will tell you.
First of all, you like to go out for lunch and dinner. So you wander up and down the little streets of Rome and Florence, looking for a nice Trattoria to taste the so famous Pizza and Pasta. There are very friendly waiters standing in front of their restaurants, advertising their menus to you with sweet words and the biggest smile you have ever seen. You are hungry and tired of walking and looking around, so you take the invitation and sit down. Great, you are in for an Italian cuisine treatment for tourists.
So, while you are going through the restaurant’s menu, ordering the platti primi and secondi, choosing a bottle of wine and looking forward to taste real Italian culture, the owner of the Trattoria sees the “€” flying into his wallet.
First of all, you will pay for what you get to eat and drink. Secondly, most places charge you 10% or a cover charge of about 2-3€ for having the pleasure of using chair and table. We are talking per person. So a family of 4 is paying an extra of 8-12€ per meal. I know no other country doing so, if you do, please tell me.
Next, did you know, that a lot of Pizzerias in Rome have 2 different menus? Well, one is for locals and Italians, the other one is for the tourist. Tourist menus are priced higher, so you may pay an extra couple of €uro for each item you order. Honestly, you don’t sit at a restaurants table, look at the prices and ask the person sitting at the next table how much the Pizza Frutti di Mare costs on his menu, do you? No you don’t.
Prices of hotel rooms are mostly made by the receptionist looking at you and grading you. So, not having a reservation and just walking into a hotel and asking for a single room can be very informative. The service of 3-star hotels around the Termini station in Rome, which is the major train station there, is pretty much all over the same. The rooms are small, the breakfast nothing and the showers have the size of a coffin. I walked into the first hotel, asking for a single room, I got a price of 175€ (That’s a 273$US at the moment). Across the street the rate was 150€ a night, but when I would stay more than one night, the rate would drop to 100€. 20 yards further down the street, I got a room, exactly the same size and service, for 65€.
You can guess where I spent my 3 nights in Rome.
This is Rome, after all! You are spending holiday time in the eternal city. Most tourists stay at hotels and hostels around the Termini station. Have you been there? No? Then let me tell you, that this district has the most hotels and hostels and restaurants. And it is one of the most stinking, dirty looking and homeless housing areas in Rome. This can’t be Rome. Is that all you have to offer to tourists arriving in your beautiful historic city? That’s it? Being asked for money and a cigarette every 10 yards? Watching homeless sleeping all around the station, seeing two burnt out cars in a side street for days while leaving my hotel on the way to get some normal breakfast.
Rome, you are Italy’s capitol. Your country is one of the G7 members. You are an early member of the European Union. You have millions of €uro coming into your pockets from tourism every year. Is that all you are doing to preserve the roman spirit? I can’t imagine that your streets were looking that dirty and stinking during Rome’s imperial times, when Legions were spreading the Roman spirit through most parts of the known world.
But then, we tourists pay happily for everything we get from the old world. We look at everything we see and say, “Well, it is Italy, how beautiful, isn’t it!”