Want to try slow tourism? First give up your guidebook

Florence’s Uffizi Gallery wants to discourage casual visitors, promoting repeat visits at different times. It’s a noble aim: we should all learn to take our time

Some people go to Florence and check off its sights before heading for a pizzeria in the city that does Italy’s worst pizza (really, try the lethally delicious local delicacy Lardo di Colonnata instead). Others feast so obsessively on art they make themselves sick. Overdoing it on the art of Florence is a recognised medical condition, called Stendhal syndrome, named after the pseudonym of French novelist Marie-Henri Beyle, who fainted from artistic overload here in the early 19th century.

Now, Eike Schmidt, the director of the city’s Uffizi Gallery, wants to discourage the more superficial of its 2 million annual visitors, and, presumably, fill the city’s hospitals with exhausted aesthetes by changing how people visit Italy’s greatest art collection. He hopes to achieve this by changing ticket prices to reward repeat visits, including in the early mornings and off season, and punish people who “come in for a selfie in front of Botticelli’s Venus”, discouraging “hit-and-run tourism”.

Related: 10 of the best ways to enjoy Florence … on a budget

Continue reading...