Since the mass tourism was consolidated, many historic enclaves and emblematic landscapes have gone from being lived spaces to become scenes Subjected to constant pressure, first by the popularization of travel and then by the amplification of social networks. Over time, this accumulation of visitors has forced cities and towns around the world to test solutions every time more diverse (taxes, quotas, access restrictions or changes in the uses of space) in an attempt to preserve places designed to last centuries in the face of an increasingly intense form of tourist consumption.
The selfie as a payment entry. And it is precisely at this point where the latest movement of the authorities in Rome appears, who have begun to put a price not on the contemplation of their monuments, but on the concrete act of standing in front of them and producing content, turning the selfie into a checkout experience.
The most symbolic case is that of the Trevi Fountain, where viewing the monument is still free from the square, but going down to its level, occupying the iconic frame, throwing the coin and taking a photo now requires pay two euros. In other words, the fee does not buy history or heritage, but rather time, space and proximity in a saturated scenario, explicitly assuming that the true tourist value is no longer in looking, but in appearing in the image.
La Fontana as a permanent filming set. For years, the Trevi Fountain had become a human funnel where thousands of daily visitors competed for a few seconds in front of the marble, the water and the cell phone camera, until the experience became an almost impracticable horror.
If you like, the new limited access system works as if it were a set locker: Whoever pays can go down, pose, repeat the photo and stay as long as they want, while gestures that break the illusion of the stage, such as eating or drinking, are prohibited. Rome thus assumes that the contemporary ritual is no longer tossing the coin to return to the city, but rather certifying on networks that one has been there, and that this gesture has an economic and management cost.
Between normalization and controversy. There is no doubt, such a measure has divided visitorsbetween those who see it as reasonable to pay “what a coffee costs” for an orderly experience, and those who consider inadmissible put economic barriers to a historical symbol.
However, the debate hides a broader reality: paid access does not arise so much from the need to collect money as from filter flows, reduce masses and monetize a pressure that already exists, or so they say in the administration. With more than ten million people a year coming to the Fontana, the payment acts as a regulator of the desire for proximity, not of cultural interest.
Throwing coins, new risky sport. CNN counted that on the first day of the new system, not everyone was convinced. Apparently, a group of Spanish tourists, reluctant to pay, stood outside the barriers and threw coins into the fountain from above.
In fact, several failed completely and did not reach the water, while below, paying visitors ducked as the coins they were raining from above. A municipal official said that in the coming days they would introduce patrols to prevent injuries from incorrect throws.
Same problem, different solution. Also in Italy, in the small alpine village of Santa Maddalena, at the foot of the Dolomitesthe response has been different, but part of the same diagnosis: the express selfie is emptying the places that it makes viral of meaning. In his case, the enclave church.
There is no charge for downloading a photo, but rather directly limits access For those who do not stay overnight, parking becomes more expensive and they are forced to walk a long way to get to the church that has become an Instagram icon. The objective: to discourage the visitor who arrives, takes the photo and leaves, leaving saturation, but little value for the community.
From seeing to consuming the frame. In short, both in Rome as in the Dolomitesthe underlying message is the same: mass tourism no longer revolves around discovering places, but rather consuming images, and administrations are beginning to manage this phenomenon as a product with limits.
From this perspective, the Trevi Fountain symbolizes the definitive step, by clearly separating free contemplation from access to the “filming set”, while Santa Maddalena is committed to brake directly to the passing tourist. Two different approaches to the same contemporary problem: when the trip is reduced to a selfie, heritage ends up becoming a stage and access, inevitably, a regulated good.
Image | Benson Kua
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