A picturesque Lombardy town has become the latest Italian victim of overtourism, with stakeholders expressing concern for public safety due to crowding.
Described by Lonely Planet as “Lake Garda’s prettiest village”, Sirmione straddles a narrow peninsula on the lake’s southern shore – an “all-but-island” whose “olive groves”, Roman architecture, and purple flowers were praised by the poet Tennyson.
With the vestiges of a 1st century BCE Roman villa and a 13th century fortified port castle overlooking Garda’s azure waters, Sirmione has long been popular with sightseers but over the early May 2025 bank holiday weekend, tens of thousands of tourists descended on the town making it go viral on social media for all the wrong reasons. Confcommercio Brescia figures indicate the town welcomed nearly 41,000 visitors over the three-day period, while The Independent reports up to 75,000. The higher number would mean guests outnumbered local residents by nine times.
Gridlock
Footage shared on TikTok reveals gridlocked crowds trying to cross a small bridge and archway leading to Castello Scaligero di Sirmione, while other clips show the rest of the town also almost at a standstill due to the sheer number of people in the streets. A 40-minute queue to access the historic heart of the town developed, with pedestrians and vehicles fighting for space.
Speaking to The Times, Marco Merlo, who advises a local tourism association, said: “We’re very worried about public safety and the quality of life for tourists, residents and workers.” Merlo called on local authorities to consult industry stakeholders to find “effective and widely agreed strategies.”
🚨 These shocking images are from Sirmione, on Lake Garda, Italy 🇮🇹 this weekend
— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) May 4, 2025
Overrun by tourists — chaos, gridlock, and hours of waiting
A crisis that must be urgently addressed and regulated
It damages our heritage and turns the experience into a negative one
So sad… pic.twitter.com/D8SRujm1kv
Risk of “real and lasting harm”
Local cultural association, Siamo Sirmione (“We are Sirmione”), criticised the council’s “management model” and agreed that the crowding was the worst they had ever witnessed – a problem that, if left unaddressed, risked creating not only “hardship for residents but a real and lasting harm for the tourism and image of Sirmione,” the group said.
Commentators on social media echoed those thoughts. One TikTok user questioned the appeal of visiting the town under such crowded conditions, asking: “Overtourism is not only a problem for citizens, but also for tourists, what did people enjoy about this trip?”
@lucaforte90 ♬ suono originale – Luca Forte
Need to manage “exceptional situations”
One local councillor Roberto Salaorni, a local councillor, recognised that different crowd management strategies are needed, suggesting one measure the town could take by “possibly installing a barrier at the entrance to the castle, which would enable us to manage exceptional situations such as we saw on Friday.”
Sirmione would not be the only destination worldwide to make those moves. Examples include the “access charge” and checkpoints Venice introduced in 2024; Greece’s Parthenon, which capped visitors at 20,000 a day to limit bottlenecks; and the installation of entry barriers to hiking trails around Japan’s Mount Fuji.
