Inside Italy is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip from Italy that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

Italian wildlife has been making international headlines this week, after a bear attacked a French tourist out hiking in the mountainous Trentino province of northern Italy. 

The man was not in a life-threatening condition, but the story of another attack renewed international interest in the issue of bears in northern Italy and the threat they may pose to humans.

Local authorities have now ordered the bear to be shot, triggering protests from animal rights activists and reigniting a long-running local debate over the dangers posed by the animals, which were reintroduced in Trentino between 1996 and 2004, and now number around 100.

There has been fierce debate over their presence in the area since April 2023, when a jogger was killed on a woodland path in Italy’s first fatal bear attack in modern times. 

The bear thought responsible, known as JJ4, will now be sent to a reserve in Germany rather than being shot as initially ordered after protestors insisted she was innocent.

Local authorities insist that killing the bears is a “last resort”. But in February this year, another brown bear known as M90 was shot dead by forestry police in the province after it reportedly showed “excessive confidence” around humans.

Such incidents illustrate the problem with attempts to rewild carnivorous animals, according to a recent report in National Geographic on the situation in Trentino – an essential read for anyone concerned about the risks or interested in the wider conservation issue.

It’s important to keep things in perspective. As National Geographic writes: “many more people are harmed in the Alps each year by cattle than they are by carnivores.”

In the capital, there was another piece of seemingly positive news from the city council this week. After announcing more bins and toilets for the city last month, Rome’s mayor has now confirmed more taxis will soon be on the road as he approved the release of 1,000 more licences.

This is a big deal because, until now, Rome hasn’t issued a single new taxi licence for two decades. Existing licences are bought and sold at eye-watering sums (reportedly up to €250.000), or passed on through the generations, keeping the doors firmly closed to competition in the sector.

As anyone who has attempted to use taxi services in Rome has probably noticed, this protectionist system does not seem to benefit customers.

Rome, like other Italian cities, has become notorious for its chronic shortage of cabs, as well as for common issues with overcharging and frequent refusal to take card payments or to take customers shorter distances, as detailed in countless negative reports in the Italian and international press. General rudeness from taxi drivers is also seen as standard by Romans, but it leaves a bad impression on many visitors.

Right now, Rome has some 7,700 licenced taxis, compared to around 19,000 in London, 18,500 in Paris, and 16,000 in Madrid. The additional licences, plus new rules allowing other drivers to take on a second shift, means the number of taxis is expected to rise to around 9,000 in the next few months.

It’s a start, but it’s obviously nowhere near enough in a European capital city and major global tourist destination.

For now, Italian media continues to report waits of half an hour or more for a taxi in the searing heat, with many public transport services out of action this summer due to renovation work.

📰 LA PRIMA PAGINA DEL CORRIERE DELLA SERA EDIZIONE ROMA

Trasporti in crisi | Al telefono con le app e nei posteggi: pressoché impossibile trovare rapidamente un'auto bianca

«Taxi?», mezz'ora in attesa

Ore 16, termometro a 39 gradi: nessuna risposta al centralino. E riparte la… pic.twitter.com/idoqk6wK3T

— Francesco Serpico 🇮🇹 🇪🇺 (@franser_real) July 18, 2024

Most people are well aware that the number of Airbnb apartments and other short-term lets aimed at tourists is booming in Italy. But is the situation now becoming unsustainable?

In the popular seaside town of Monopoli, Puglia, to take one example, local media reported this week that the number of holiday lets continues to soar while the number of local residents falls. This isn’t one of Italy’s depopulating ‘ghost towns’: the local economy is doing well, mostly due to booming tourism. But the flipside of this is that young local people say they’re forced to live elsewhere, as property prices are unaffordable and living conditions worsening.

It’s a familiar story, repeated across popular travel destinations Europe-wide.

In Italy, Venice is the most famous example of the hollowing-out of Italian city centres by mass tourism and property speculation. But the pattern is now seen everywhere from major cities to small coastal towns up and down the country.

In every case, it’s left to local and regional authorities to regulate on the issue of soaring property and rental costs fuelled by tourist lets – and very few seem willing or able to do so.

In the major destinations of Florence and Venice, councillors have long toyed with suggestions of regulating tourist lets. There have been some big announcements about them doing so in recent years. But so far, all the talk has come to nothing:

Florence’s plan to ban new Airbnbs in the centro storico has hit a major hurdle following a court ruling last week, while in Venice the city council has been very quiet lately on a long-discussed proposal to curb holiday lets – a move which campaigners say would be far more useful to the city than a five-euro entry fee.

Inside Italy is our weekly look at some of the news and talking points in Italy that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.