Is there anything more magical, I wonder, than being in a place like Rome, or Florence, for the first time? The emotion of finally seeing “for real” what we have known all our lives from pictures in books, TV documentaries, or the words of our relatives, is something difficult to describe, so much so it’s not unusual for some to remain speechless, or even shed a tear or two — guilty: it happened to me the first time I saw the Colosseum.

Unfortunately, though, there may be something else — and not quite as poetic — we associate with our visits to Italy: people. Too many, too noisy, not always well-behaved. With them come also a series of other problems, like queues at museums and historical sites of course, but also a loss of authenticity for so many of our most beautiful cities, where locals end up leaving because of rising living costs, confusion, and whatnot.