ROME (AP) — The city of Florence took new measures Tuesday to crack down on overtourism, just as the Italian government hosts the Group of Seven tourism ministers in the Renaissance city and seeks to significantly boost the country’s place as a top visitor destination.
Mayor Sara Funaro’s Cabinet approved a 10-point plan that, among other things, would ban key boxes on buildings in Florence’s historic center as well as the use there of loudspeakers by tour guides, a statement from City Hall said.
The keyboxes — small boxes with a digital pad that are used by owners of short-term rental apartments to easily leave keys for visitors — have become something of the symbol of local Florentine anger at tourists, whose numbers have rebounded after COVID-19.
In a recent protest, Florentines taped red Xs over the keyboxes, outraged at the transformation of the city center and its magnificent palazzi and narrow streets into a collection of short-term vacation rentals that have displaced local residents and the long-standing businesses that served them.
According to national statistics bureau ISTAT, 2023 saw the most visitors ever in Italy with 134 million arrivals and 451 million people staying in hotels or other registered lodgings. The number of visitors opting for non-hotel lodging grew nearly 17% compared to 2022, ISTAT said in a June report.
Italy ranks fourth on the U.N. World Tourism Barometer of international tourist destinations, after France, Spain and the United States. The tourism industry contributed some 10.5% of Italy’s gross domestic product in 2023, according to Statista research.
Florence, long run by the center-left, last year announced a ban on new short-term private rentals in the center in hopes of stemming the exodus of locals. It has repeatedly pressed for a special regulation from the national government, currently headed by right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni, to cap the number of days a property can be rented out at 120.
To date, only Venice has been permitted to limit short-term rentals. The lagoon city has been drowning under overtourism for years and this year began imposing a day-tripper tax to try to regulate tourist flows.
The right-left political divide over Florence and its tourism woes could come to a head precisely as Italy hosts the G7 tourism ministers starting Wednesday in Florence.
At a warm-up event this weekend, Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche acknowledged some art cities were suffering from too many visitors. But she said that overall Italy is hardly taking advantage of its tourism potential and needed 50 million visitors more a year.
Lamenting Italy’s fourth-place position on the list of the world's top destinations, she said Italy needed to sustainably grow its tourism potential with quality offerings.
“We can grow much more, we can develop much more and the industry of tourism can truly become the leading industry of our nation,” she said.
FILE - People line up to enter in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, Aug. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday presided over the certification of her defeat to Donald Trump four years after he tried to stop the very process that will now return him to the White House.
Her task was ceremonial and her remarks perfunctory. Standing on the dais, Harris passed copies of each state's election results to lawmakers, and she stood silently with her hands clasped in front of her while they were read out loud.
When the process was finished, Harris announced Trump's victory. She smiled tightly as Republicans gave the next president standing ovation.
“The chair declares this joint session resolved,” Harris said at the end. "Thank you."
She shook a few hands and kissed a few lawmakers on the cheek before departing. The entire session lasted less than a half hour.
In a video message released in the morning, Harris described her role as a “sacred obligation” to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.
“As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile," she said. “And it is up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles.”
Harris joined a short list of her predecessors who oversaw the ceremonial confirmation of their election loss as part of their role of presiding over the Senate.
Richard Nixon did it after losing to John F. Kennedy in 1960. Al Gore followed suit when the U.S. Supreme Court tipped the 2000 election to George W. Bush.
But no other vice president has been holding the gavel when Congress certified their loss to an incoming president who refused to concede a previous defeat. In addition to spreading lies about voter fraud, Trump directed his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol, where they violently interrupted the proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021, to formalize Joe Biden's victory.
Harris was at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington that day. A pipe bomb was discovered nearby, and she was evacuated from the building.
During the campaign, she frequently invoked the Jan. 6 attack to warn voters of the danger of returning Trump to the White House. She described him as a “petty tyrant” and “wannabe dictator.”
After Harris lost the election and her bid to be the country's first female president, she promised in her concession speech to honor the will of voters.
“A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results,” she said. “That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny.”
No disruptions are expected on Monday. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump's transition team and the incoming White House press secretary, said there will be “a smooth transition of power.”
“When Kamala Harris certifies the election results, President Trump will deliver on his promise to serve ALL Americans and will unify the country through success,” she said in a statement.
Leavitt did not respond to a question about Trump's attempt to use the certification process to overturn his defeat four years ago. At that time, Trump encouraged his vice president, Mike Pence, to disqualify votes from battleground states based on false allegations of fraud.
Pence refused. Trump's supporters burst into the Capitol and halted the proceedings, forcing lawmakers to hide for their safety. Trump posted on social media that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”
Police eventually cleared the rioters from the building, and lawmakers reconvened to finish their certification. Scores of Republicans still voted to support challenges to the election result.
“I had no right to overturn the election," Pence said two years later. "And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Trump faced criminal charges for trying to stay in power despite losing. However, special counsel Jack Smith dropped the federal case against him after Trump defeated Harris since long-standing Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.
A separate case in Georgia over Trump's attempts to subvert the 2020 election is mired in controversy over the Fulton County district attorney's romantic relationship with a prosecutor she hired to lead the case.
The most recent example of a vice president certifying their own defeat came after the 2000 election. The battle between Gore and Bush ended up in the courtroom as the campaigns argued over whether Florida should conduct a recount.
Bush won at the U.S. Supreme Court, preventing a recount and allowing his narrow victory to stand.
Congress certified the results on Jan. 6, 2001, over the objections of some Democrats.
“I rise to object to the fraudulent 25 Florida electoral votes,” Rep. Maxine Waters of California said at the time.
Gore slammed the gavel and asked whether the objection met the requirements of being “in writing and signed by a member of the House and a senator.”
“The objection is in writing, and I don't care that it's not signed by a member of the Senate,” Waters responded.
“The chair will advise that the rules do care,” Gore said.
After a few rounds of objections, Congress finished the certification.
″May God bless our new president and new vice president and may God bless the United States of America," Gore said after announcing the results.
Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation.
FILE - Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., lower left, objects to Florida's electoral vote count results, as Vice President Al Gore, standing, top center, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., seated, top right, listen on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2001. Other members present, seated at left in middle row are: Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Chris Dodd, D-Ct, hand over mouth., Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., standing at podium and Rep. William Thomas, R-Calif. Others not identified. (AP Photo/Kenneth Lambert, File)
FILE - Vice President Mike Pence returns to the House chamber after midnight, Jan. 7, 2021, to finish the work of the Electoral College after a mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington and disrupted the process. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks, Nov. 6, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
