Nassau Should Learn From Florence—Where Historical Tourism Earns Big Bucks

by Larry Smith

Several weeks ago Tough Call was in Savannah - a 200-plus-year-old city in Georgia that is about the size of Nassau, with an impressive level of historical preservation that earns billions of tourist dollars a year.

But Savannah can't begin to compete with Florence - a 2000-plus-year-old city in Italy that I had the opportunity to explore a few days ago. The past is overwhelmingly present throughout this historical treasure house of some 365,000 people - and it sends a crystal-clear message to Bahamians.

In Florence there is scarcely a modern building to be found and, in a curious reversal of conditions in Nassau, it is the contemporary buildings that are most likely to suffer from neglect. In Florence, a historic building (the earliest date back to the 11th century) is a ticket to affluence rather than an encumbrance to be razed under cover of darkness.

Florence was the home of the Medici, a family which rose to prominence in the 13th century as bankers to the Pope, went on to become leaders of the powerful Florentine oligarchy, and later ascended to the grand duchy of Tuscany...in the process creating what is today an astonishingly rich tourist attraction.

The Medici were collectors, patrons of geniuses like Michelangelo and Galileo, and rulers who presided over Florence's greatest public works - the monuments that millions of visitors from around the world come to gawk over today. Anna Maria, the last of the Medicis, died in 1743, after bequeathing all her properties and treasures to what eventually became the Italian republic.

But don't think that tourism is a new-fangled phenomenon here. In fact, visitors have been admiring the city from the 16th century onwards when Sir Tobie Mathews, a son of the Archbishop of York, famously wrote: "I live in Florence in an excellent cool terrene, eate good melons, drink wholesome wine, look upon excellent devout pictures, and heer choyce music."

Exactly four hundred years later, on the occasion of Tough Call's visit, the product is essentially the same. And it earns big bucks for contemporary Florentines. More than 11 million people visit Tuscany every year, and all of them head for Florence. Yet despite this crowding in a relatively small space, the city is rated the best destination in Europe, and one of the best in the world.

Despite little parking and thousands of tourists as well as local pedestrians, dogs and cats sharing the narrow cobblestone streets with buses, cars, carriages, mopeds and bicycles, it all seems to work - with no gridlock and no visible garbage. And a zillion historic monuments, friendly trattorias and hole-in-the-wall shops prise euros out of your pocket at every turn - with few regrets. A gelato here, a hand-made leather bag there, a museum everywhere.

According to the United Nations, 60 per cent of the world's most important works of art are located in Italy, and half of them are in Florence, which was declared a World Heritage Site many years ago. In fact, the city is in danger of becoming an open-air museum based exclusively on tourism, with over 1.6 million people a year visiting the Uffizi art gallery alone.

The key factor is history - which in Florence begins with the Romans and advances through the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and beyond. Julius Caesar established a settlement on a ford of the River Arno in 59 BC, and the town became capital of the province of Tuscia in the 3rd century AD. Tuscany itself is named after even earlier inhabitants - the Etruscans who preceded the Romans.

As medieval Europe recovered from the disintegration of the Roman Empire, Florence became a powerful city state and a centre of trade and finance. From the 14th century onwards, its leaders supported some of the world's greatest philosophers, architects, sculptors and painters in a flowering of human knowledge that became known as the Renaissance.

In a single Florentine church, for example, one can find the remains of Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli, as well as memorials to other historical notables who once called the city home, such as Dante and Leonardo da Vinci.

In sum, Florence is, as Queen Victoria wrote disapprovingly in 1893 "a town full of attractions and temptations to expense." And it is also, as the philosopher Henry James said, "the most beautiful view in the world."

In the Bahamas, while we manage to squeeze a billion dollars a year out of the four million tourists who visit by air or cruise ship - most of it leaves the country immediately to pay for imports. And the fact is, we could earn a helluva lot more if we had a product to sell other than proximity to America or sun, sand and sea.

We may not have the sheer volume of monuments and art that a city with a 2000-year history can display, but there is no doubt that Nassau's historical narrative could be made equally as compelling as Florence's if we applied ourselves to the job.

If we took the trouble to restore and maintain our historical assets instead of discounting and discarding them, we could certainly earn more from our visitors than the margin on a brace of 'hey, mon' t-shirts.

Our historical narrative begins with the Lucayans, an Amerindian tribe that carved several settlements out of the coastal bush on New Providence hundreds of years before Columbus - the Italian who sailed the ocean blue - came across them on San Salvador. And Tough Call was part of an archaeological investigation years ago that found evidence of a pre-Lucayan settlement on Paradise Island.

After the Lucayans were shipped off to slavery in Hispaniola by the Spanish, Nassau was settled by English colonists in 1648. These people were expressing the conflicts of the English civil war - a complex struggle between Catholics and Protestants as well as between king and parliament that led to the world's first bill of rights. The Eleutherian Adventurers who established the first permanent European settlement in the Bahamas were essentially puritans fleeing from royalist oppression.

The cave at North Eleuthera where these first settlers worshipped and camped out following a shipwreck has been largely ignored and used as a dumping ground rather than treated as a major tourist attraction. It was recently defaced by vandals even though it is a grave site for both Lucayans and Europeans.

The island of New Providence was settled from Eleuthera, and it remained an obscure British outpost until the arrival of Henry Avery in 1696 launched the age of piracy.

In a recent book by journalist Colin Woodard called Republic of Pirates, this fascinating period of Bahamian history is described as "a long-lost tale of tyranny and resistance, a maritime revolt that shook the very foundations of the newly-formed British Empire, bringing transatlantic commerce to a standstill and fueling the democratic sentiments that would later drive the American revolution. At its centre was a pirate republic, a zone of freedom in an authoritarian age."

These pirates were sailors, indentured servants and runaway slaves who rebelled against their oppressors - a few thousand crewmen of various races and nationalities who took part in a golden age from 1715 to 1725. And most of the best-known buccaneers were based in Nassau until the British sent an ex-privateer named Woodes Rogers to restore order.

Then there was the American Revolution, that 'shot heard around the world' which led to the immigration of thousands of loyalists and their slaves in the late 1700s. These immigrants built many of Nassau's most historic landmarks, and tried but failed to set up a plantation economy on the out islands.

Slavery and the abolition of the slave trade (as well as slavery itself in 1834) is another key piece of the Bahamian historical puzzle. And the fact is that the Bahamas' African heritage was forged not only by slaves, but by thousands of Africans set free on our islands by the Royal Navy. Several settlements on New Providence - like Gambier and Adelaide - were founded by these people.

Most readers will be more familiar with Nassau's 20th century history - which included colourful activities like bootlegging, military occupation during the Second World War, dramatic political and social advances during the 1960s, as well as a diverse group of celebrity tourists.

It is a narrative that any movie scriptwriter or souvenir producer would die for, yet we turn our backs on this incredibly rich legacy every day, dumping garbage over the landscape and tearing down the landmarks.

Perhaps - with the threat of a global economic depression looming - now is the time to learn from cities like Savannah and Florence, which have created and saved so much to offer travellers while earning a good living.

Tough Call? I don't think so.

Comments

[Erasmus Folly]

Amen, but...

We can't even figure out that the prison bus moving through downtown at rush hour - morning and afternoon - is retarded. We have a long, long way to go...

A. STOP PRISON BUS! MOVE COURTS TO PRISON!
1. Dredge Harbor
2. Move Containers and Shipping
3. Bring Residential development downtown
4. Move high courts and parliament in over the hill redevelopment push
5. Begin buyback of old buildings from bad owners
6. Launch reinvestment scheme based on holistic historical and commercial vision
7. Rawson Square, Parliament buildings and courts = convert to museum, art, cafe and shopping area

[Erik]

Welcome back, Larry. You were missed.

Great article. Nassau seems to have turned into a matter of survival, and the concepts of thriving, growing, creatively adapting, capitalising on strengths (rather than breeding our weaknesses) have been mercilessly sacrificed. It is not impossible, but it will take an as-yet-unseen collective will and effort of the Government, citizenry and business community to actually happen.

I don't think it's a tough call either. But it will be tough work -- can we handle that?

Regards,

~ejr~

[Kif]

Larry,

Perhaps we'll see a follow up piece articulating the last remaining charm of some of the Out Islands. I'm most familiar with Harbour Island. Most certainly, the charm and scale of the historic buildings in addition to the people and the beach have long been he draw for tourism there.

Architectural historic preservation is not only for buildings but for the survival of an economy.

[drew Roberts]

I have been saying for a good number of years now that Nassau ought to make historical tourism a priority.

@Erasmus Folly

A. STOP PRISON BUS! MOVE COURTS TO PRISON!
YES.

1. Dredge Harbor
YES.

2. Move Containers and Shipping
YES.

3. Bring Residential development downtown
YES.

4. Move high courts and parliament in over the hill redevelopment push
No. But move parliament to Freeport or Andros other than forthe show of opening and closing. Make that a big thing in the historical setting.

5. Begin buyback of old buildings from bad owners
YES. (But...)

6. Launch reinvestment scheme based on holistic historical and commercial vision
Fine.

7. Rawson Square, Parliament buildings and courts = convert to museum, art, cafe and shopping area
Rawson Square = yes.
Parliament buildings = yes, see above.
courts = no, at least not for one, keep that functioning in its historical setting. Move the rest if you like.

drew

[carlton adderley]

I was told by someone a few years ago that one of the "higher-ups" at Disney, visiting downtown Nassau, remarked that if Disney owned the property, they could make untold millions.

You mentioned Savannah and Florence, but hey, just look at Key West - no "volume of monuments and art", yet the city is a major attraction because it looks quaint and somewhat ancient.

We could do so much by beginning with Nassau and then doing the same with some of our out islands. Keep talkin'!

[Erasmus Folly]

@Drew

Glad we agree on so many points.

However, the courts have to go. At the very least, the courts that deal with criminal cases have to go. They cause the prison bus. Criminal courts should be constructed closer to Fox Hill or, even better, a brand new prison and court complex for 'maximum security prisoners' should be built elsewhere in the Bahamas - with an accompanying court complex there. Separating the first time offenders and small time crooks from the hardened criminals should be a top level priority. A 17/18 year old busted for marijuana possession shouldn't be able to have any contact with long time drug dealers, drug runners or murderers - that is beyond foolish.

If a court is to stay downtown, which I still don't think is necessary, then let it be the Supreme Court only. Then some Colonial pomp can be preserved. However, they shouldn't march down Bay Street - let them march from Governor's House down to the Supreme court along the little roads and make those Pedestrian only. Tourists will line up to see that. Even better, preserve one court downtown and set up the permanent home for the Privy Council in the Caribbean. Legal tourism! Just imagine!

Public transport MUST be reformed seriously, no more hot air and talk!

Moving the Parliament to another island is untenable. The beating heart of the Bahamas is Nassau, so the Parliament must be there. If it isn't Parliamentarians will be even more removed from the life of the people than they currently are. A brand new Parliament building just over the hill would bring energy, development and change to the over the hill area, all of which are sorely needed.

That whole Rawson Square area, along with the government offices on the eastern side of the square, should be converted into commercial area with historical/cultural/artistic bent. Also, a well laid out Junkanoo museum should be alotted for that area. Something very modern and convenient. Imagine tourists being shown how to do junkanoo and the best of the Bahamian junkanoo groups taking little groups of tourists and having them perform against one another... in costume. The whole time, they would buy drinks and food etc from the Junkanoo museum cafe/bar.

A five star casino (think Monaco) with resort should be downtown in that beautiful government building just east of Rawson Square on the north side. Much greater marina space allocation is a must as well, on either end of Bay Street. The government must implement a vision and seek big private investors to get on board. They should also start a Bahamian people's fund or sovereign fund. You pay small amounts in for small shares and a small cadre of our best and brightest business minds (non-political) invest that money into highly rated development projects on behalf of the Bahamian people. The long term goal of the fund is to operate as if it were a private fund with responsibility to its share holders first and foremost.

This country is a goldmine if we could only take our heads out of our a#$%! long enough to see that. Finally,we must get off fossil fuels, so that we have US dollar foreign reserves as leverage.

[Lynn]

Hi,
Why not create non-partisan ad- hoc groups to focus specifically on revitializing our tourism economy, and present it to the government. Also, advocate for policies that require consistent perservation of historical monuments, and downtown buildings. There are so many great ideas presented, that I'm afraid the government will probably never hear. just a thought)

[drew Roberts]

@Erasmus Folly

If you check some of my old posts you will find we agree to a large degree on the prison reform issue too.

Certainly we don't need all the courts to remain, One high court that people can respectfully sit in on and observe will probably do.

I see you point re parliament. My point in saying to move it is that it will help to spur a migration out of Nassau, or at least slow its population growth which we desperately need.

Once the big shot government guys go, the set that need to have power lunches with them will be motivated to follow.

Then have all not non-customer facing government office jobs hire for the new locations as well. Pick a big island. Freeport already has the roads and more so it would be best from that standpoint, but the mess that remains down there might point to Andros instead.

"If it isn't Parliamentarians will be even more removed from the life of the people than they currently are"

Change the law. You can't represent a district you don't live in full time. That is needed anyway and will help with the problem you so rightly point out.

all the best,

drew
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