Tuscany tourists face pool-free summer
Distressed owners of villas and hotels in drought-hit region left high and dry ahead of holiday season
TOURISTS looking forward to lounging by swimming pools in Tuscany this summer may find water levels alarmingly low thanks to new restrictions to tackle Italy’s long-running drought.
Large parts of Tuscany are now subject to a decree that pools cannot be topped up between May and October as the country tries to save water.
Owners of villas, hotels and agriturismo rural resorts are deeply unhappy, saying large quantities of water are lost to evaporation during the summer.
“There’s deep concern,” said Federico Taddei, head of a regional branch of CIA-Agricoltori, an association of rural businesses. He added topping up pools, especially those used by a lot of guests, is “indispensable for keeping a pool clean and enjoyable” for holidaymakers.
Bringing in water by truck to fill up swimming pools is “unthinkable because it’s too expensive,” Diana Grandi, from an agriturismo resort near Siena, told La Stampa newspaper.
“Who are the geniuses who came up with this and do they have any idea of the consequences it will have?” asked Paolo Barlettani, the owner of another rural retreat, Borgo Campetroso.
In the far north of Italy, the autonomous German-speaking province of South Tyrol has announced a ban on artificial snow in ski resorts, saying snow-making machines use up too much water and energy. It has been an unusually dry winter in the Alps and Dolomites, with some areas receiving around half their normal snowfall.
The “urgent” measure was signed by Arno Kompatscher, the governor of South Tyrol. There are still a few weeks go until the ski season ends in Italy’s highest resorts.
In the Apennines, the mountain range that runs down the spine of Italy, environmentalists have warned that ski resorts that are lower than 1,500m ( just under 5,000ft) in altitude may no longer be viable as a result of global warming.
This is Italy’s second year of drought, and lakes and rivers are at record low levels. In some places people can walk across dried-up lakebeds to what were once islands.
“2023 has only just started but it is already showing worrying signs in terms of extreme climate events and drought levels,” Giorgio Zampetti, the head of Legambiente, an environmental organisation, said last month.
Meanwhile, Italian rice farmers are cutting down the land they dedicate to the notoriously thirsty crop as a result of the drought. Italy cultivates about 50 per cent of the rice produced in the EU and is the world’s only grower of types most suitable for risotto such as arborio.
Nearly all of it is grown in northern regions that have been particularly badly hit by lack of rain and snow melt.
Roberto Magnaghi, director general of Ente Nazionale Risi, a public rice research body, said that no more than 211,000 hectares will be sown with rice in 2023, the smallest area for 23 years.
“Water is scarce. We are all looking up at the sky,” he said. The outlook in Lombardy and Piedmont is even bleaker than in 2022, when production fell 17 per cent from the year before.