According to Roland Barthes, tour-guide books present destinations as an “uninhabited world” where “the human life of a country disappears to the exclusive benefit of its monuments.” A consequential choice, he argues, as it abstracts the tourist site from the “real” place, which “exists in time” (emphasis his). The portrayal of tourist destinations, Barthes goes on, suppresses “the reality of the land and that of its people, it accounts for nothing of the present, that is, nothing historical, and as a consequence, the monuments themselves become undecipherable, therefore senseless.” Many scholars since Barthes have argued that such tourist expectations, of an empty and timeless space purified of its mundane daily uses and local significance, have had concrete and lasting effects on physical spaces, particularly in cities. Heritage management expert, Britt Baillie, for example, sees in heritage sites like Italy’s art cities “the ultimate reduction of the dimensionality of time,” and cultural-heritage scholar, Ilaria Agostini, states that the Italian città storica has experienced an “obliterazione” and, as a result, is “esangue per l’esodo di abitanti e di attività.” Cultural economist, Pier Luigi Sacco, argues that “La città si trasformerà in un fondale per foto ricordo, quando i negozi chiudono, i tessuti turistici della città si trasformano in desolate città fantasma, e finiscono per assomigliare a quei ‘non luoghi’.”