Florence asks tourists to come and pay

As his hometown starts to buckle under the annual onslaught of tourists, the Mayor of Florence has come up with a scheme to help to ease the pressure - charging tourists to visit the magnificent Renaissance city.

Leonardo Domenici has recommended that each visitor pay a small fee to keep this "open-air museum" and its many historic attractions afloat.

"It is fair that those who come to visit them contribute, even partially, to their upkeep," he says, suggesting a fee of 2000 lire ($2) to be collected at point-of-sale by hotels and campsites.

"Should it be implemented, it's not a lot to pay," says Edoardo Betti, director of the British branch of the Italian State Tourist Board. Tuscany hosts about 8 million tourists a year, he says. "They will all want to visit Florence, if only to send a postcard."

The number of tourists has risen about half a million in five years, and the city has trouble accommodating them.

Florence's cry for help has again thrown the spotlight on the cost of mass tourism to key historic cities, particularly if they are small.

"The trouble is that if you still have huge numbers of people there will inevitably be damage to the fabric of the cities," says Anna Somers Cocks, editor of the Art Newspaper and chair of the Venice in Peril fund. "Charges in hotels could make things worse, as they could increase the number of day trippers, and the traffic is already terrible."

Along with the danger that these cities are turning into open-air museums solely for tourism, there is also a quality-of-life issue for the inhabitants. Somers Cocks suggests a system whereby tourists book in advance to visit the town.

Betti adds that there has been a concerted attempt by the city's institutions to accommodate the enormous growth in tourist numbers.

"The Uffizi [Florence's famous art gallery, a huge tourist draw] has far longer hours now and its Monday closure will be abolished soon," he says. "It already has a booking system although not enough tourists use it.

"We don't push Florence, Venice and Rome. Instead, we try to push other cities like Siena and Verona. But whether you market it or not, Florence is a household name and people want to go there. And there is no way to deter them."