AFP – RELAXNEWS (English International Version)
June 6, 2013 Thursday
TOURISM
Florence hopes for tourism boost as Dan Brown visits
US bestselling author Dan Brown reveals the secret behind his success
in Florence on Thursday as the city sees a wave of tourists following
in the footsteps of his mystery-cracking hero.
Visiting the cultural jewel to promote his latest book “Inferno” —
inspired by the city’s most famous son, mediaeval poet Dante Alighieri
— Brown is due to speak at a conference on the subject of mankind’s
“need for mystery”.
Tour guides are already proposing “Dan Brown Tours” and hotels are
offering “Dan Brown Packages” less than a month after the book’s
worldwide release — in a city that is feeling the impact of Europe’s
economic crisis on tourism.
“There’s definitely interest. I’ve already had questions from various
tourists. A lot of people have read the book,” said Elisabetta
Franchetti, a guide with ArtViva walking tours, which launched its
Brown-inspired route on Thursday.
The three-hour itinerary winds its way through the centre of Florence,
tracking a gripping chase involving Harvard professor Robert Langdon
as he seeks to prevent an act of bio-terrorism that takes up most of
the “Inferno”.
Franchetti said the novel could be a way for mass-market tourists to
access Florence’s priceless cultural heritage more readily,
particularly the lesser-known nooks and crannies that serve as the
backdrop to the plot.
The book has already sold nine million copies in 13 countries. Brown’s
“Da Vinci Code” sold a total of 81 million copies worldwide.
Franchetti led a tour group across the Ponte Vecchio spanning the Arno
River — along the Vasari Corridor used by Langdon in the book to
elude his enemies.
“The idea is to enrich everything, to allow people who do not know
Florence, who do not know who Dante was, who Boccaccio was, who
Petrarch was, who Machiavelli was, to go deeper, be more curious,”
Franchetti said.
There is no shortage of tourists in Florence, although city
authorities complain that visitors are often only daytrippers and want
to encourage them to stay for longer to gain a deeper understanding of
what the city has to offer.
The number of Italian overnight tourists to Florence fell by around
5.0 percent last year, while foreigners were down 0.9 percent with
sharper drops for those coming from other European countries,
according to official data.
Eugenio Giani, president of the Italian Dante Society and head of the
city council in Florence, said he hoped the novel would also inspire
more young people to appreciate Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), author of
the Divine Comedy.
The famous three-parter is made up of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.
“The book is important because it renews an interest in Dante, even in
Italy,” said Giani, speaking in a room in the Palazzo Vecchio where
Langdon again escapes his pursuers through a secret door behind a map
of Armenia.
“Dan Brown is contributing a lot to this renewed interest,” he said.
Giani gave as an example his 14-year-old son who is reading the book
and has been asking his father about some landmarks and artifacts
mentioned in the book like the Dante mask kept in the Palazzo Vecchio,
the seat of the city council.
The city official and Dante fanatic said the book also helped Florence
because it placed Dante at the heart of the city from which he was
famously exiled.
Giani said he had met with Brown and suggested he visit again “once
this hubbub is over” to find new themes for his new novel.
“There is no shortage of secrets here,” he told AFP.