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If Carlo Zanella, president of the Alto Adige Alpine Club, had his way, travel influencers would be banned from Dolomite.
He denies the latest Italian social media trends. Italian social media trends have attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists into the mountains of northern Italy, with many running across private property to get the perfect shot of it.
In response to the influx, annoyed local farmers founded Turnsteel. Tourists will have to pay 5 euros (nearly $6) to access several “instagrammable” spots, including the Seseda and Dray Zinnen (three peaks) mountain ranges.
Photos showing a line of up to 4,000 people a day have appeared on social media in recent weeks. But rather than stopping people coming, the image acted as a magnet.
“The media has been talking about turnstyle, and everyone is talking about it,” says Zanella. “And then people go where everyone else goes. We are sheep.”
Italian law requires free access to natural parks such as the Alps and Dolomite, but landowners who set the turnstyle say they have not yet received an official pushback from the authorities.
Georg Labanser, a former Italian national team snowboarder who owned the land on the pastures of Seseda, told Laden Language Magazine La usc that he and others had begun to score points across land for tourists.
“So many people go through here every day, everyone goes through our property and leaves garbage behind,” he says. “We were asking for help. We were hoping for a call from the state authorities. But there was nothing. We only read the newspaper statement. Gossip. There was nothing specific. We didn’t receive a warning letter.
Zanella says she avoids the once-loved alpine hiking trails throughout the summer, but she supports landowners charging admission fees to cross the property. He believes the government should pay for the maintenance of the entrance system, analogizing the visitor spending their busy weekends towards Venice, where visitors have to pay 10 Euro admission fees (about $12).
“We’re going to increase the price from 5 euros to 100 euros,” he tells CNN. “And we’re closing the travel influencer account.”
Beyond the public’s nuisance of overcrowding, he fears that social media tourists will put them at risk.
“Once upon a time, people who approached the mountains were ready, dressed for the mountains, came for hiking, especially the Germans who had a map and knew where to go. “Now I’ve seen people go up to Seseda with sun umbrellas and flip-flops because the cable car was closed and they didn’t check the lift schedule.
The local tourism bureau has petitioned authorities to close turnstyle, claiming the issue is exaggerated. Santa Christina’s Tourism Bureau, which oversees parts of the area where Turnstyle was introduced, says it hired four park rangers to keep tourists on the trail, not crossing pastures and not flying drones.
“Things have improved significantly,” said Lucas Demetz, president of the Santa Christina Tourism Office, in a statement shared with CNN. “And even the garbage issue isn’t as serious as people say. It’s been drastically reduced.”
Still, across the Aosta Valley, parking lots pop up and stop people driving down the mountainside, hikers need to go to Monterosa for a paid shuttle bus. In Piedmont’s Piander Repeat Swamp, only 150 cars are allowed to park in the nearest parking lot to discourage visitors. Some areas, including Lake Brides, are currently charging 40 euros for cars to access areas that people are trying to discourage from coming to take photos. Arno Copatcher, governor of South Tyrol, which includes parts of the Dolomite Mountains, is calling on the central government to set restrictions to protect vulnerable alpine ecosystems and discourage locals from renting out their chalets to tourists.
It’s not just the mountain residents who will close out visitors who behave badly by Italians. Nationwide, new ordinances were a hallmark of the summer of 2025.
Wearing swimsuits and bare chesting in some Italian towns attracts some looks. A half nudity can also be fined 500 euros in the name of politeness. The Tuscany Island of Elba and the Ligurian city of Diano Marina have introduced a summer ordinance that prohibits shirtless and swimsuit-only struts on both men and women, anywhere except the beach.
And if your outfit is considered vulgar or “vulgar” in the eyes of the viewer, the authorities can impose a smaller fine starting at 25 euros.
Walking barefoot is prohibited in Livorno. On Sardinian beaches, you have trouble digging holes for an umbrella, smoking or lying on the sand without a mat. The popular LaPerosa Beach area has so far only allowed 1,500 bathers at a time to ban overcrowding.
In San Ferristielseo, a party town south of Rome, having an Apaitivo on the beach is a way of life, with take-out alcohol being prohibited in both towns and beaches. Loud music can only be blared at certain times across the country, and in the southern regions of Puglia, if you play music within 500 meters of the coast, sailors will be fined.
