Florence, citizens protest during Tourism Forum against city sold out to luxury

While the International Forum on Italian Tourism 2025 opened at the Villa Vittoria in Florence this morning, with the participation of Minister Daniela Santanchè, a protest was taking place in the city. A group of citizens from the Salviamo Firenze x Viverci movement organized a flash mob at theformer San Gallo Military Hospital to denounce the city’s social and urban upheaval.

The demonstration took place at the same time as the institutional event and aimed to contrast the official narrative, made up of tourist records, cultural excellence and global attractiveness, with the daily reality of a city where living is becoming increasingly difficult. At the center of the protest was the redevelopment project of the former military hospital: a real estate complex destined for the ultra-luxury market, with apartments sold at 20,000 euros per square meter. An important symbol, chosen to represent the impact that years of policies geared toward tourist development and rent are having on the urban social fabric.

In the Forum, Florence and Tuscany are proposed as a virtuous model, capable of combining beauty, history and development. The region is portrayed as a picture-perfect postcard, with eight UNESCO sites, medieval villages, a renowned food and wine tradition and a territory stretching from the Apuan Alps to the beaches of Versilia. But behind this glossy image lies p

a progressive process of expulsion of residents, a growing housing crisis and the privatization of public spaces. The story of the former St. Gallen Hospital is emblematic. In 2016, the facility was sold by the State Property Office. In 2022 the City Council approves a project that describes the transformation of an entire city block in the historic center. An area that since the thirteenth century has housed a convent and a hospital, and then a military barracks, is rethought to house hotels and luxury residences. Two years later, in 2024, ownership passes to a Singapore-based financial fund. The complex is targeted at the elite eastern market, further accentuating the exclusive vocation of the development. Real estate units are proposed at exorbitant figures: up to 20,000 euros per square meter. A threshold that, in a city where the average salary is around 1,600 euros per month, makes clear the distance between the real estate market and the real possibilities of citizens.

The flash mob emphasized this disproportion, but also other elements. The benefits to the community are minimal: the public works planned in exchange for the project permit are worth less than a single housing unit in the new complex. For example, 32 square meters are estimated to be sold for 630,000 euros, which is more than the entire package of works to be paid for by the property. Meanwhile, property prices in the areas surrounding the construction site continue to rise, triggering a domino effect that fuels the bubble and pushes entire segments of the population out of the market. The protest thus sought to highlight the distance between the Florence told to visitors and the one experienced by residents. A city in which tourism has become the main shaping force, but also the cause of strong imbalances. The trend of transforming public assets into accommodation facilities or valuable properties is not new, but in recent years it has accelerated dramatically. Florence, like other Italian art cities, is increasingly thought of for those who pass through it as tourists or investors, and less and less for those who live there. The flash mob challenged this vision of the territory, in which beauty becomes a resource to be capitalized, while the social and environmental effects of tourism pressure are neglected. The Tourism Forum aims to discuss the future of the sector, focusing on growth, attractiveness and investment, but outside the institutional circuit, voices are being raised calling for a turnaround.

Florence, citizens protest during Tourism Forum against city sold out to luxury

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