An Italian ski resort has been plunged into chaos after thousands of tourists – many influenced by a popular TikToker – descended at the same time after snapping up cheap day-trip deals online.
Roccaraso in the Apennine mountains was left strewn with rubbish after some 10,000 tourists arrived in 260 buses last Sunday, angering locals and overwhelming businesses.
What was meant to be an affordable day trip for families turned to ‘panic’, visitors said, as mountain roads were clogged up by coaches and cars, with many left stranded.
Disgruntled day trippers who had expected a winter wonderland were instead met with snow-scarce slopes and struggled to get on ski lifts and into restaurants, with the resort unprepared for the sudden influx.
The visitors, most of whom had travelled around two hours from Naples, bought ‘all-inclusive’ one-day trips to the town for as little as 20 euros from travel agencies and through adverts on TikTok.
Many reportedly decided to head to the mountain town after influencer Rita De Crescenzo visited last week and filled her page with content promoting the resort.
The Neopolitan TikTok star, who has gained 1.7million followers on the platform thanks to her ‘mafia mother’ image, shared videos of her family frolicking in the snow during their trip and hailed Roccaraso as a ‘beautiful place’.
De Crescenzo has insisted she does not feel responsible for the so-called ‘invasion’ of tourists, before adding that ‘maybe double’ the amount of visitors will head to the resort next weekend ‘thanks to my videos’.
‘The results have been extraordinary. The videos have exceeded one million views.,’ she said, adding that the people who are following her by taking trips to the town ‘are real families, people who want to give a unique experience to their children.’
Rather than the ‘white weekend’ many tourists were hoping for when they booked their budget trips, many found themselves unable to do any of the activities tour companies had advertised.
Car parks were filled beyond capacity, with one video clip showing a Land Rover Defender seemingly abandoned on a pile of snow.
Huge crowds took over the slopes, with kids on makeshift sleds ‘hitting people like skittles’ as they hurtled down the mountainside, according to one witness.
The increase in visitors has also seen a large number of accidents take place on the slopes, il Messaggero reports, with 180 rescue operations carried out by the ski carabinieri last month.
A 20-year-old visitor called Gaia described how their weekend break turned to misery.
‘Unfortunately, it went badly because no one expected so many people to arrive,’ she said. ‘There were poor services everywhere, starting with the restaurants, they even closed the doors in your face every time you tried to ask for an available table, to the transport with shuttles and taxis occupied, up to the toilets where there were lines for hours.’
She added that the tourists themselves were also at fault, with many people who she said had ‘no shame’ using Roccaraso as a picnic site and ‘completely mistreating’ the beauty spot.
People set up their own barbecues and even lit fires on the slopes to warm up as facilities became overrun, one tourist told Corriere della Sera.
Countless videos also show queues of people trying to get on buses, with tourists reporting lengthy delays in getting home once the day was over.
Local authorities in the L’Aquila responded to the chaotic scenes by holding an emergency meeting, and have now put limits on the buses allowed to come into the town.
Roccaraso Mayor Francesco Di Donato announced that he was implementing a ban on buses parking in nearby Viale Napoli, where a layby near the town has become a popular spot to stop and has left roads blocked.
He has called for checks on buses and even the support of the army, news outlet Leggo reports, to ‘defend’ the town from a similar influx next weekend.
Despite the warnings from authorities, de Crescenzo has said Roccaraso will ‘continue to be popular’ and has vowed to return to the resort on Sunday.
