Untold Italy · Friday, September 18, 2026
Locals in Cinque Terre are organizing community events like soccer tournaments and festivals to preserve their identity amidst the challenges of mass tourism. Younger generations are returning to take care of the villages and countryside, emphasizing the need to connect with locals for an authentic experience.
“And what came out from talking to them is that their sense of identity is getting harder and harder with the increase of this mass tourism, because they feel like they are kind of disappearing. also their identity and traditions because unfortunately the tourism in the nowadays these days is a mass of tourism of people that just stay one day and they are not really interested in how people live what are the traditions what's the real country is the because as i said the chinko terra the countryside not just the tiny villages and so they are um They have an urgency of sticking to their tradition and staying together and keeping an identity.”
“If you travel to Cinque Terre, connect with locals. Make questions. Be curious. Try to know how they live, what they do, what are the traditions, because they are proud of their tradition.”
“But he wants to do that because the needing is not eating. The needing is making community. And they really feel this need of being a community and be proud of who they are.”