The Spritzes and Carbonaras That Ate Italy

Europe|The Spritzes and Carbonaras That Ate Italy

There seemed to be no end to the sprawl of Italian delicacies. Deep-fried arancine rice balls, cannoli and fluorescent Aperol spritzes spilled across the red-and-green checkered tablecloths of the 31 restaurants packed in a single street in Palermo, feeding a polyglot and ecstatic crowd.

“This stretch here is magnificent, it is — bang! Just restaurant after restaurant,” said Mark Smith, 55, an Australian tourist sipping an Aperol spritz on the street, Via Maqueda.

For Palermo’s mayor, that was one spritz too many. He banned the opening of new eateries on Via Maqueda and surrounding streets this year, conceding that even the holy Italian grail of food had reached its saturation point.

“Too much sugar spoils the coffee,” said the mayor, Roberto Lagalla, occasionally chewing on an unlit cigar during an interview in a palazzo inside the historic center of Palermo, Sicily’s capital. Central Palermo “must not turn into a food village,” he said.

Although Italians are rabid fans of their national cuisine, many now fear it is swamping their city centers, drowning out local stores and everyday life in favor of the tourist trade. In Bologna, Florence, Rome and Turin, streets have been turned into what critics see as endless open-air restaurants serving carbonara in Instagrammable pans as women roll out tagliatelle behind display windows, in zoo-like simulations of Italian grandmothers.

Italians’ concerns are not simply a snub at tourists or an aesthetic quibble, but an issue that officials are taking seriously. The authorities in Florence have also banned the opening of new restaurants on over 50 streets. While food is central to Italy’s identity and economy, some officials and residents worry that too much of it could undermine the very authenticity it celebrates, turning parts of Italy into a caricatured and anachronistic version of itself.