This article is published in issue 22/23 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until June 7, 2022
I dreamed that in Porto Cervo, next to the Billionaire, a new bathing establishment was opening: the
Berlinguer (understood as Enrico). The Billionaire and the Berlinguer couldn’t have been more
different, because at the Berlinguer everything was sober, even austere, but very elegant, and on the menu there
pasta was called pasta, bread bread and wine wine. I don’t know where my dream came from, I know
only before I went to sleep I had read about the monstrous overpriced vacation lurking.
Istat has calculated that after two years of pandemic – which affected everyone, a little less who
works in the summer – the average spending of the tourism sector will increase by 9% compared to 2021plus or
less than that for hotels, flights and ferries, not to mention fuel. The Italian summer,
in short, it promises not only to be very expensive, but also very crowded: an investigation of
Demoskopika presented at the Bit, the international tourism exchange, expects 92 million arrivals e
almost 343 million visitors, an increase of about 40% compared to last year, for a turnover
total of 26 billion, 11.8% more than in 2021 (but the forced absence of 300 thousand tourists
Ukrainians and Russians will entail 180 million euros less). Out of 30 million Italians who will go in
holiday 27 will remain in Italy, while 29 million 550 thousand will not leave at all, due to lack
of desire or more likely of money. Remember the time when holidays did not exist
again and where for almost everyone leaving meant only going home.
The story of the holidays tells the relationship between poor and rich. It is a fact, for example, that
when the poor began to turn pale because they moved from the fields to the factory or
in offices, the wealthy began to sunbathe and tan became fashionable. But to do
business really, the rich weren’t enough. Everyone had to have the money and time for it
to consume. Thus it was that in the 60s the right and duty to leave, established by article 36 of the
Constitution, began to be exercised. In 1957 Fiat launched the 500 for the workers, in 1964
the Autostrada del Sole was inaugurated, in 1967 there was talk of “exodus” and in 1968 it was
they registered over 80 thousand presences (today 343 million are expected). In 1969, with the conquest
of the 40 hours a week, the weekend was born. What was then sold and bought was a
luxury that resembled a respite and an acknowledgment: life could not be alone
Work. While today, among the products of the holiday industry there is also the illusion of being rich,
the right to post a better life on Instagram than you do. There is nothing wrong with the
Free trade is based on freedom and imagination, but it is fair to clarify that you buy
an “experience”, not reality. Because after all, holidays are made up of simple things, that
should be considered common: salt water, sand and iodine perfume, heat, wind and
blue sky, sun and a little shade. As Enrico, the Berlinguer’s lifeguard, a man knows
thin in a white shirt and creased trousers, staring melancholy at the sea.
Source: Vanity Fair
