Lessons from il Bel Paese

Despite its politicians, the Mafia and excessive love for football, Italy remains ‘il Bel Paese’. You eat well, you can immerse into culture and the sun shines a lot. People are friendly too. No wonder Italy is one of the premier traditional tourism destinations in the world.

I am back from a week in Florence with excursions to Venice, Pisa and the Tuscan hills full of olive trees and with the vendemmia, this year seems better than last year, in full swing.

Between the walking tours to the Duomo, other medieval and renaissance churches, Piazza Della Signoria, the Uffizi, Boboli Gardens behind Palazzo Pitti, Piazza San Marco, il Rialto bridge, the canals, the leaning tower of Pisa (I assure you it won’t fall down for the time being), and a good plate of pasta with a glass or two of Chianti, I kept wondering.

I thought, why do we have a crisis in tourism in Malta? Appreciate my bias, but: the Duomo in Florence is magnificent from outside but bare inside. St. John’s in Valletta has a lot to offer inside. Churches? Palaces? We can match Florence anytime. Canals in Venice? Well, Cottonera is a far cry but can be transformed into a nice maritime experience. Wine? Try a bottle of good Maltese wine and you will trash the idea that good wine is a monopoly of the Italians, French and the New World. History? We have a heritage that’s the envy of the world with our megalithic temples, Mdina, and the Knight’s bastions.

Then we have something Florence and Venice and Pisa do not have: the sea, with nice little beaches and a lot of scuba diving opportunities.

Package for package, Malta stands its ground in terms of sun, sea and culture. So why did I face a tsunami of American, Japanese, Spanish and German tourists in Florence and Venice but in Malta we’re stuck with ‘cheap’ British holidaymakers and tour operators?

Venice is cleaner than Florence (the streets I mean, the canals and laguna are filthy). We Maltese bemoan the state of our roads, but the state of the pedestrian areas and pavements in Florence is awful, matching the worst Maltese standards.

Since Florence does not have an underground and buses are sometimes tricky to master (even in London we had some negative experiences), we walked a lot. Florence is a small city and this helped us get anywhere on foot from our hotel. Unfortunately there are few good hotels in Valletta and Floriana for tourists to stay immersed in the unique heritage of our capital city.

As a ‘brand manager’ in Malta I am getting to know what makes tourist tick and I am sure we are missing on a lot of opportunities.

Venice is not cheap, and Florence is even less. 7 nights and a two-way ticket to Rome (Air Malta) cost us Lm250 inc. taxes. We stayed in a 3-star hotel, a family-run converted old house with old furniture but a very clean place and nice staff. Expect to pay more than a euro (Lm0.43) for a small bottle of still water, 2 euros (Lm0.86) for a can of carbonated drink, and 3 euros (Lm1.30) for a small baguette or a small slice of pizza or an espresso in the city centre. Compared to Malta, we are cheaper, yet Malta is constantly labelled as ‘not cheap’. Of course, Britons find Spain, Portugal and Greece cheaper than Northern Italy and Malta. No wonder I saw very few British in Florence and Venice.

The euro in Italy has an important story to tell. Italy is in a mess because of the Italian government mishandled the introduction of the euro. Prices went up with the changeover but wages remained the same. The average wage in Italy is just 1,000 euros (Lm420) a month, not far from the Maltese average.

We had to pay to enter museums and other historical sites except the Duomo (you have to pay to enter the dome and walk up the 400+ steps of Giotto’s tower). We even had to pay 60 euro cents to go public toilet (which were relatively clean). It wasn’t so the last time I was there six years ago.

There’s another important difference I noticed: the cities are full of black African and Arab (illegal?) immigrants, more than six year ago.

The traditional Vu Cumpra of the 90s gave way to the new version of the new millennium: well-built (are they former army soldiers of some sub-Saharan conflict?), well-fed, and armed with a fairly good mobile phone, they try to sell fake sunglasses, fake watches and fake handbags of established brands. They have all the same stuff, supplied by the same wholesaler.

They don’t annoy passers-by but openly defy posters strategically positioned in the city centre warning potential customers not to by fake products because it’s an infringement of copyright.

It’s all in the game. City police, the normal police, the Carabinieri, and private guards patrol the streets. At the first sign, the Vu Cumpra gather their wares and walk hastily away. When the security officers are gone, they regain the streets. The officers do not arrest anyone. Sometimes they smile at the scene of hectic withdrawals of the immigrants, but they stay comfortably in their cars.

Other street vendors include Arab (illegal?) immigrants with posters and Chinese/Orientals (illegal?) immigrants with small gadgets.

While we were there, the Italian media reported on the brutal killing of a young Pakistani woman in Brescia, allegedly killed by her father for not being a ‘good Muslim’; the killing of another young women in a Church in Brescia by a foreign immigrant; and two illegal Tunisian immigrants are being accused of raping two French girls in Milan.

There are some important lessons to be learnt from il Bel Paese. Messrs Minister for Tourism, Malta Tourism Authority and all those involved in the Maltese tourism industry, please note.