Tourism is a crucial part of any country’s economy because it brings business into the country. Patuelli claims that “cultural tourism allows destinations and regions to (1) expand their customer base; (2) diversify their offer; (3) extend the stay of the tourists (overnight stays) and reduce seasonality”( Patuelli, Mussoni, Candela, pg# 1). For these reasons tourism is important especially to Italy as it is known for their historical and cultural attractions. Tourism is growing rapidly, and it is very profitable to the Italian government. This source was written by Roberto Patuelli, Maurizio Mussoni, and Guido Candela and analyzes the domestic tourism within Italy. According to Patuelli, “Italy was the fifth highest tourism earner and the fifth most visited country in the world behind France, Spain, United States and China.” Not only is there international tourism but there is also domestic tourism which is just people from within the country visiting these historic sites. The rest of the article focuses on the effects of the flow of tourists between each part of the Italian regions. Each region of Italy produces something different for visitors to enjoy. All of the historic sites are also spread out throughout the country which in turn leads visitors to stay overnight and visit many locations. The Italian government is thriving through tourism alone because it is pretty stable although they are trying to make it year-round tourism instead of just seasonal.
Many parts of Italy still embrace the culture and belong to Italy, but there are also places like Fiume that no longer belong to Italy. Fiume is modern day Rijeka, Croatia. Many Italians were forced to abandon their city because it ceded and as spoils of war was given to Yugoslavia. The residents were forced to leave everything that they know and their houses, land, and personal possessions. Not only was Fiume taken but also Zara, Pola, the entire peninsula of Istria, and the islands of the Gulf of Quarnero. The residents were given a choice of staying and giving up their culture and country to become Yugoslavian or leaving everything and moving to the rest of Italy to remain Italian. My grandparents were one of those people. They lived in Fiume for a long time, and that was where my father was born, later on, they moved back to Casino, Italy after Fiume was taken. The Italians who stayed in Yugoslavia where according to Eisenbichler, “persecuted to the point of night-time arrests, unexplained disappearances, show trials, summary executions, and mass slaughters. The mountain crevices in which many bodies of Italian victims of Yugoslavian persecution were unceremoniously dumped have now become emblematic of the atrocities and ethnic cleansing carried out by Tito’s communist forces against the Italian population of Venezia Giulia, Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia”( Eisenbichler, pg# 116). This source was written by Konrad Eisenbichler and is actually an article based on the life of Giovanni Angelo Grohovaz who was a poet born in Fiume and migrated to Canada after the secession. This topic is important in my research paper because it shows that throughout history Italy has lost parts of itself and some of the culture that was in many of the cities. Italy never got these places back, but they will always be considered Italian to the Italian people who remember what happened so long ago. |
A significant aspect of the Italian culture is the historic sites and architecture which need to be restored or at least kept stable, if not all of these historic sites would crumble because they are hundreds if not thousands of years old. One problem that the Italian government is facing is that their economy is not doing very well and they have no funds to keep these historic sites from falling apart. According to Nadeau, “there have been 15 major archeo-emergencies in Pompeii alone, and scores more across the country, caused by neglect and increasing budget cuts”. This source is written by Barbie Natza Nadeau and it talks about all of the damages that have occured with historical sites with parts that explain what the government has planned to do. People in business have begun to donate money to save these sites. There have been many emergencies so far such as “Venice sinking, the famed Duomo in Florence is cracked and flaking, and Norman-era churches in Sicily have been boarded up.” There have many problems such as the Colosseum that lost three pieces of mortar just before it was open to the public. Not to mention the 2,000-year-old House of Gladiators that collapsed in Pompeii. The need to save these sites is to protect Italian roots and some of the country’s culture. The economic crisis in Italy has left the culture budget the be cut in half in three years and now it doesn’t cover as much as it used to. There is only enough money to maintain and preserve these historic sites, but the amount of money may increase as these locations become older and older. Without these places, there may be a decrease in not only in tourism but also a loss of culture.
Italy has always been a place where tourists enjoyed to go not only for the food but for the beautiful sights that come along with it. The mountainside and the seaside have both attracted many visitors, and this has affected the Italian culture. Not only do the Italians get to live their culture, but they can also show outsiders their way of life. Italy attracts tourists because of the “health, mountain or seaside resorts, its temples, and holy places”(G.R., pg #43). This source was written by an anonymous person who goes by G.R. and it talks about what was happening with tourism in Italy after World War 2. There were so many tourists that the Italian government had to create an organization to keep up and organize everything. It was called many names before it officially became the Direzione Generale per il Turismo. It was formed under the government to organize tourism so that it promoted useful developments that would benefit the country. Before WW2 the Italian government had perfected the tourism in such a way that it created a balance in the nation’s import-export account. Tourists would come in from all over the world through any transportation, by airplane or boat but also by train. Although all of this was ruined after the war, the Italian State Railways started reconstruction as fast as possible to get back to where the country was before.
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