For tourists returning from vacation, a roll of photos and a suitcase full of souvenirs are often the closest they can come to bringing a piece of their trip back home. Now communications company ItalyComunica claims to have canned the air itself. Lake Como and sell these cans for €9.90 (about R$60).
Each can would contain 400 milliliters of “100% authentic air”, collected from Lago di Como, a destination that has attracted more and more visitors in recent years due to its beauty and the presence of celebrities — George and Amal Clooney They have a house near the region, and films such as “007: Casino Royale” and “Casa Gucci” were filmed there.
More than 5.6 million people visited Lago di Como in 2023, and the number is only growing, according to the Lombardy tourism body.
To take advantage of this demand, the marketing specialist Davide Abagnale created a website to sell posters of Lago di Como, inspired by posters of San Francisco and Los Angeles, which he saw during his honeymoon in 2022.
Now, the new initiative — the sale of air cans — seeks to “create a souvenir that tourists can carry easily” and “something original, fun and even provocative,” an ItalyComunica spokesperson explained to CNN Travel .
“It’s not a product, it’s a tangible memory that you keep in your heart,” Abagnale commented to CNN Travel adding that, once opened, tourists can use them as pen holders.
Not everyone was thrilled with the idea. The mayor of Como, Alessandro Rapinese said he would prefer other types of souvenirs, such as the region’s traditional silk scarves.
“It’s a curious idea, but not for everyone,” he told CNN Travel . “But, as mayor of one of the most beautiful cities in Italy, if someone wants to take some of our air home, so be it — as long as they also take away good memories of the place.”
Chiara Piscitelli who sells the cans at his bookstore in Como, described the item as a “gadget” — meaning practical, innovative and small.
Despite the apparent novelty, the lake As it is not the first Italian destination to offer “canned air” . Abagnale explains that the idea came from other places, like Naples, where “local air” has been sold for years.
And in 2020, a company began selling bottles of “authentic” air from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so Brits abroad could feel the “air of home.”
Other destinations, like Iceland, also sell canned air to tourists, and one Canadian company saw sales explode in 2015 when Chinese customers began buying its canned air in abundance.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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