Viareggio, 24 June 2024 – The vagaries of the weather still don’t allow us to taste summer. But, since Friday, we have officially entered the beautiful (we hope) season. The one that Rolando Viani he waited with trepidation and, together with him, all the people of Viareggio, from the day it finished; as he reminds us in the collection of stories dedicated to the beach kids of the 1950s. It happened like this, like a bolt from the blue. «It was one day, the rain suddenly fell and we realized that we had lost the summer», wrote with a great touch of nostalgia the cousin of the most famous Lorenzo Viani. «The bathers were no longer there and we could deflate our chests…».
Already summer. And with it the “holidays” and all the unresolved Gordian knots on the topic of “home” which move from large metropolises to provincial cities. Yesterday, like a bolt from the blue, he was the mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni to shuffle the cards. The Catalan city “will ban the rental of apartments to tourists by November 2028”, anticipated the Spanish mayor, explaining that “it will abolish the licenses currently in force for 10,101 apartments intended for short-term rental”. Put like this, it may seem like an exaggeration. In reality, as the national president of Federalberghi immediately reiterated, Bernabo Bocca, this is an epochal decision (“it will take time but at least Spain has moved”). The short-term rental market, in fact, has had an enormous impact both in Europe and in Italy, from large cities to small towns. Impossible to find apartments for long leases with not always positive consequences. THE historical centres they are emptied of residents, the shops disappear leaving room for ”mangers” (anonymous places for mostly cut foods), streets and squares remain desolate once the flood of ”foreigners” (or ‘locusts’) has passed empty. A metamorphosis which also caused social lacerations. With elderly and young people unable to find decent housing unless their pensions or salaries are priced out of the market. All forced to compete with an “addicted” rental market. A theme that also closely concerns Viareggio. Both on the housing front and on the commercial front (think of the many empty buildings that dot the neighborhoods). Mayor Collboni caught everyone off guard, right at the beginning of summer, but the challenge it poses is not to be underestimated. Perhaps it is time for “unpopular choices in Italy too”, observes Bernabò Bocca. But in the long run they can prove to be a harbinger of opportunities and positive choices for the good of tourism and also of those who live in cities. Which is the real distinction: anonymous or lively places. And that’s no small thing. The income is always tempting, but if there is desertification when the rain comes then there is no one left.
