Italian village restricts access to its Instagram-famous church

By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN

(CNN) — For more than a decade, images of Santa Maddalena, a small village church in northern Italy framed by jagged peaks of the Dolomite Mountains, have circulated online. But locals say it was last summer that the steady stream of visitors became a flood.

Now, authorities are stepping in to slow the flow, introducing new restrictions aimed at curbing day-trip tourism and easing pressure on the village.

Beginning in May, access to the village near the UNESCO World Heritage-listed church will be restricted by a barrier allowing entry only to residents and visitors staying at least one night in the area, according to the local municipality. Cars and tour buses bringing day trippers will be turned away.

Those visiting for the day — up to 600 people during peak season — will instead have to walk 30 minutes or more from designated parking areas to reach the church. The municipality has yet to decide whether a shuttle service will be introduced for visitors unable to make the walk.

Once the village parking lot reaches capacity, drivers will be required to park even farther away, says Peter Pernthaler, the mayor of the surrounding Funes district, who told CNN the filtered entry system will operate from May through November. Parking currently costs 4 euros — a little under $5 — per day, but Pernthaler says prices will rise to discourage visitors who arrive solely to take a quick photo.

“I don’t want to talk about overtourism. That’s not the right word,” he says. “I’m not even saying that tourists are a nuisance. But a lot of them come, and we have to manage them. For the residents’ peace of mind and also to ensure a positive experience for the tourists themselves.”

Santa Maddalena’s rise as a social media hot spot has been years in the making. The church gained early traction among Chinese tourists after appearing on SIM cards issued by a Chinese mobile phone operator more than a decade ago. Nearby Seceda mountain later featured as a screensaver in Apple’s iOS 7 update in 2013, prompting waves of visitors keen to see the image in real life — with daily numbers reportedly reaching 8,000 at peak times.

Both sites have since become fixtures on TikTok and Instagram, drawing what locals describe as “hit and run tourists” — visitors who document the scenery before quickly moving on, contributing little to the local economy while placing pressure on infrastructure.

‘They destroy everything’

Day trippers clog narrow roads and discourage longer-staying visitors, according to councilmember Roswitha Moret Niederwolfsgruber. “They destroy everything in their wake to get a photo,” she told CNN. “It has become unsustainable, there is no balance.”

Local officials stress that the aim is not to deter tourism altogether, but to slow it down.

“There are professional photographers who come here, and there are tourists who can’t wait to take a simple selfie and go,” Pernthaler says. “There are people who stop and stay here for days, but there are also those who arrive and leave within an hour and a half.”

Attempts to curb mass tourism are not new in the area. Last summer, Georg Rabanser — a former Italian national team snowboarder who owns meadowland near Seceda — installed a turnstile to charge visitors crossing his land to photograph views of the San Giovanni di Ranui church on the opposite side of the valley. The move, he later told CNN, only attracted more tourists.

Pernthaler himself faced backlash over the restrictions, but says he has no desire to be remembered as the “mayor who chases tourists away.” Instead, he frames the measures as part of a broader “slow tourism” push, encouraging visitors to trade frenetic sightseeing for deeper, longer stays.

Enforcement will come at a cost, requiring additional patrols, but Pernthaler argues it is a necessary investment. “We need order, both for those who live here and for those who want to arrive, take the classic photo, and leave,” he told local media.

What may appear an extreme response could also prove preventative. Many locals fear that the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Cortina, set to begin next week on the opposite side of the Dolomites, will intensify existing pressures. A study by think tank The European House Ambrosetti estimates the Games could attract nine million additional visitors between 2027 and 2030.

The regions expected to benefit most — and feel the strain — include Milan, Belluno, Bolzano, Sondrio and Trento, areas already grappling with tourist saturation. For communities like Villnöss, the current influx may yet turn out to be the calm before a far larger storm.

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