The magic of Carpi, the top emerald of the Mediterranean, has been enchanting crowds of veiwers for ages with its incomparable beauty and understated glamour. On the contrary, the settlement’s authenticity is under a sweeping wave of visitors’ inflow as the tourist’s numbers rise to unprecedented levels, leading the island community to the crossroads, where the very spirit of the place is being defied.
One can recall those bygone days when Capri was the destination for local folks looking for some peace on the coast, but now it languishes under the relentless flow of visitors. Only a few years ago, these small streets belonged to a neighborhood of local people’s friendly jokes and slow walks, but after setting up a photo with travelers and their camera operators, the picturesque area is in danger of being flooded.
However, the arrival of the hordes of tourists generates a depressing picture: Capri becomes a prisoner of the very phenomenon it tries to profit from—the indigenous population is being pushed into a smaller and smaller space as the peninsula’s tourism industry develops. By the way, rents are getting steeper, family and traditional businesses are drastically decreasing, and what used to be a chorus of local dialects is now overwhelmed by the rumble of foreign languages.
With regard to this process, a sorrowful pensiveness hovers around the atmosphere of this place as the folks sort it out in their minds that perhaps the island has been buckled down, some of it by its very attractiveness.
As the debate continues, one point is widely considered: the destination of Capri provides just a clear illustration of a greater global affair in which the struggle of tradition versus modernity is carried out in marvelous places across the world. Those are the stories of survival and adaptation, of the heart holding onto the core values in the midst of the struggle with alteration, along with the embracing of the thing that is obvious to all.
Ultimately, the destiny of Capri depends on not only the decision-making powers of the governing bodies and the corporate business, but also of the travelers who come with passion and of the people who live here with their dreams.
