Many Italian cities are doing something new. They are saying no to more Italian restaurants. This was not normal before.

The mayor of Palermo explains it simply. He says too much sugar makes coffee taste bad. He thinks central Palermo is becoming a food village. It is not a living city anymore. Florence is another Italian city. Florence has banned new restaurants on more than 50 streets. These streets are in the historic center.

This is not because Italians don't love food anymore. Italians are famous for loving food. The problem is different. The problem is about tourism. Tourism has become very big. It is so big that it is changing the real character of these cities. The cities are losing their authentic life.

You can walk through these old city centers today. You will see what local people mean. Women make fresh pasta behind big windows. They perform for cameras. They look like animals in a zoo. Restaurants serve carbonara pasta in very big pans. These pans are made for Instagram photos. There are many limoncello shops everywhere. Limoncello is a lemon drink. There are many tiramisu bars too. Tiramisu is an Italian dessert. These shops are on streets that once had butchers. The streets once had bakers and vegetable sellers too.

A social worker lives in Palermo. She says her neighborhood street is like an amusement park now. It is not a city. The numbers show she is right. Rome's historic center has lost more than 25% of its residents. This happened in the past 15 years. Venice and Florence lost their city center residents even faster.

The change happened very quickly. In Palermo, the number of restaurants doubled in just 10 years. The restaurants in the historic center doubled. The big change came in 2015. UNESCO is an important world organization. UNESCO recognized Palermo's beautiful buildings. The buildings have Norman and Arab architecture. After that, tourist numbers jumped 50% in just five years. Last year, more than one million visitors came to Palermo.

You can see the change everywhere. Many buildings have bed and breakfast signs now. These are residential buildings where people live. Small golf carts drive down narrow stone streets. The golf carts have ten seats. Most visibly, hundreds of new restaurants opened. They opened in Italy's most visited cities.

Experts created a new word for this problem. The word is foodification. This means that food businesses are changing the city. It is like gentrification but with food. Gentrification means when an area becomes more expensive and changes character. Foodification is transforming city centers across Italy. The Italian government likes this trend. The government recently asked UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine. Cuisine means cooking and food culture. UNESCO gives special status to important cultural things. Tourism now makes up 13% of Italy's economy. Food and wine tourism has nearly tripled in the past ten years. This means it is three times bigger than before.

But the story is complicated now. A tour guide in Palermo explains the problem well. She had a regular vegetable vendor. A vendor is a person who sells things. This vendor changed his shop into a restaurant. Rents in the city center are very high now. Her friends had to leave the city center because of high rents. But tourism gives her a job. She says she is caught in it. That is the struggle.

The Capo food market in Palermo shows this story. The market is a place where people buy and sell food. It once sold zucchini, peaches, fresh fish, and beef. Local residents bought these things. Now the market mostly sells different things. It sells spiral pasta on sticks. It sells cannoli-shaped marzipan cookies. Marzipan is a sweet food made from almonds. It sells deep-fried street food. These things are for tourists. A fruit seller works there. His family has worked there for three generations. That means his grandfather and father worked there too. He says that on some days, he only makes 100 euros. He lost all his customers. Now everything is fast food, he says.

Palermo has an urban planning official. Urban planning means organizing how a city develops. This official describes the situation very directly. He says it is like consumers appeared who were blind. These consumers had no taste buds. Taste buds help you taste food. These consumers had a stomach made of iron. This means they would eat anything. Businesses saw this opportunity. They took advantage of it.

Not everyone thinks this is completely bad. The city's top tourism official has a different opinion. He says tourist improvements are making the city center better. It is better than it was before. And it is true that many historic centers became more lively. They became more multicultural too. Multicultural means having many different cultures.

But critics see a bigger problem. Critics are people who point out problems. They say the Italian government did too little. The government did not develop other industries enough. Industries are types of business. A major Italian consultancy made a ranking recently. A consultancy is a company that gives advice to businesses. The ranking compared European countries. Italy is behind all other major European economies in innovation. Innovation means creating new ideas and technology. A former university director in Pisa asks an important question. Pisa is an Italian city. He says: Why don't we try to get a new Galileo? Galileo was a famous Italian scientist. The director means: Why do we only want excellent chefs?

Italy has a federation of food and tourism businesses. A federation is a group of businesses working together. The head of this federation is very honest about the change. He says that sometimes the Colosseum is just an excuse. The Colosseum is a famous ancient building in Rome. He means tourists visit it between eating two pasta dishes. Tourists themselves often say this is true. One retired American visitor was at a Palermo food market. He was trying croquettes. Croquettes are fried food. He was very clear about his priorities. Priorities are the things that are most important to you. He said it is about the food and drink. It is about being with friends. He didn't care much about the history.

The social worker in Palermo sees something almost apocalyptic in the situation. Apocalyptic means like the end of the world. She watches the big celebrations on the streets. The streets are filled with happy hour crowds. Happy hour is a time when drinks are cheaper. But the region still has high youth unemployment. This means many young people don't have jobs. The region also has brain drain. Brain drain means educated people leave to find work elsewhere. She thinks of Pompeii. Pompeii was an ancient Roman city. A volcano called Vesuvius erupted and destroyed it. Before the volcano erupted, people ate and sang. She means people are celebrating but don't see the danger.

Palermo officials say they will continue promoting tourism. But they will also try to diversify. Diversify means to develop different types of business. They are trying to attract corporate conferences. Conferences are big business meetings. They are providing high-speed internet for digital nomads. Digital nomads are people who work on computers and travel. The restaurant licensing limits will help, they hope. Licensing means official permission to open a business. These limits will stop other streets from becoming what one official calls Aperol spritz monocultures. Monoculture means only one type of thing exists.

There is an irony in that phrase. Irony means something is opposite to what you expect. The Aperol spritz is that bright orange drink. It has become a symbol of Italian leisure. Leisure means free time and relaxation. But the Aperol spritz didn't even start in Sicily. It comes from northern Italy. But visitors don't care that it is not authentic. Authentic means real and original. A Slovenian college student was sitting on Via Maqueda. Via Maqueda is a street in Palermo. He was with his girlfriend. He explained his choice simply. He usually drinks beer. But he is in Sicily now. So he thinks he should have an Aperol spritz.

This is perhaps the heart of the problem. When performing Italian culture becomes more important than real Italian life, there is a problem. When the symbol is more important than the substance, cities risk becoming theme parks. Substance means the real important content. Theme parks are places made for entertainment, not real life. The question for Palermo, Florence, and cities across Italy is important. Can they find a balance? They need to find it before the authentic life disappears completely. That authentic life attracted tourists in the first place.