After spending a few weeks documenting tourist circulation patterns, I began to see typologies of characteristics & general attitudes. The following are the most common types of tourists I noticed while continuing my research in mapping.
The Lemmings: They’re typically a group of tourists that follow around a guide for the afternoon. They’re pretty easy to spot because they move much like a heard of cattle; if you get caught in their way, chances are you will get trampled. Typically they come across as loud & rambunctious. I determined this is probably because they feel safer being part of a pack rather than wandering by themselves. Essentially, they see & hear whatever the guide wishes to tell them. Every once in a while, one will step out of line & ask a very basic & insignificant question, but this is a rarity. The image above was taken inside the Campo two days after the Palio. The guide is attempting to explain this to a group of wide-eyed French tourists who are probably hearing about this “horsey-race” for the first time.
Mister Know-It-All: This guy thinks he’s a tour guide, but actually isn’t. In reality he’s just someone who’s visited the city on more than one occasion & therefore thinks he’s gotten everything figured out. If you listen to him long enough, you’ll find holes & contradictions in the information he’s more than willing to share with you. The people he drags around frown upon the Lemmings because they’re clearly less priviladged. They also ask the same tourist-related questions, but are more willing speak their minds. This photo, also taken inside the Campo, shows Mister Know-It-All explaining the matching facades of the Palazzo Pubblico to the structure across from it. I followed this group down Banca di Sotto, where the man in the blue shirt asked about the rings on the building facades (originally meant for tying up horses). He responded by saying, they ”probably for decoration” & quickly changed the topic back to something he wanted to talk about instead.
Miss Itinerary: This individual is very similar to the Lemmings, except she prefers to wander off on her own (or so she thinks). In actuality, her circulation within the city is predetermined by a text. The major difference here is she has the ability to start or stop as she pleases, skip over what she chooses to, or deviate from her planned route. These tourists are probably the most common. They’re also easy to spot because you’ll frequently catch them outside… anything of importance, reading either to themselves or aloud if they’re within a group.
The Starers: The starers are my personal favorite because they’re clearly wasting away their vacation. Their characteristics are probably the simplist of all the typologies. They stare, & do nothing else. They wander in silence & approach anything “shiny.” They essentially just… walk, look, & go home. They clearly make no efforts to digest or attempt to understand the city. On an unrelated side note: I didn’t even realize how sweaty the guy in white was until I printed this image out for our final.
The Speed Reader: This person, always seems to be in a rush. I followed one from Porto Romano who must have taken a gigabytes’ worth of images within the span of ten minutes. Anything that appears to be of some minuscule interest instantly become a snapshot, whatever it is. The majority of the time, this tourist has absolutely no conception as to what they’re taking a photo of. She never comes to a complete stop, but will often pause for a split second, only to take another picture. What goes through her mind must be: “I’ll digest this trip later, when I get home.”
The Compulsive Video Guy: Like the Speed Reader, this guy never knows when to turn his camera off. The only Siena he sees is the Siena that’s through his video camera’s LCD screen. He has no interest in viewing the city with his own eyes, & is more interested in bringing home something to show his friends whenever they ask, “So how was Italy?” The guy in the image above had an enormous love affair with his zoom lens & would constantly have his kids stage something cute or funny to be captured on film. Which angered me since it meant his video isn’t even a genuine documentation of their family trip.
The Pointers: I personally like the pointers a lot, most likely because I’ve discovered that I am actually one of them. They’re much more inquisitive than the typical tourist, which is funny because they’re always under the impression that they’re discovering something no one else in the history of Siena has ever seen. You’ll always find them in small groups, but you won’t know who they are until one of them will stop, nudge the person along side them… & point. This typically ensues a few brief moments of staring, followed by an argument about what it is they’re looking at. They’ll then move onward searching for the next great adventure to stumble across.
The Inconsiderates: These are probably the most famous of all tourist group typologies. They’re not as common as you might think, but they stand out with their ridiculous clothing & sheer insensitivity to other cultures. They’re the type of people who will take a trip to Italy & then get angry when no one speaks English. They’ll walk in front of the street cleaners & refuse to move, will dump their trash on the steps of San Martino, and are most likely the ones responsible for the graffiti inside the stairwell of Brunelleschi’s Dome. They have no real conception of Italian culture or what is considered rude or impolite. All-in-all, they make no effort to fit into the local scene & take pride in the fact that they are a tourist.
