Once a place has a gift shop it loses its magic. It becomes a middle grade report. I hate touristy sites because on the one hand they don't have the mystery for you to be interested, or they aren't as iconic as the Eiffel Tower or places that have been so used and interpreted in culture that they have their own meanings absent their original historical significance.
There are a few places I've found that have left me thinking about them:
Malta is a fascinating country. It is a country the size of Manhattan with less than a million people, it has a dozen megalithic temples that are 6,000 years old (much older than the pyramids), it has a unique culture that is a mix of European and North African, and a Semitic language written in Latin script. All of this combined with great weather make it a major tourist site, and its economy is almost wholly based on tourism.
While most people go to Malta for its scenic beaches and history, most have overlooked that Malta is a tiny ship in the middle of a turbulent ocean known as Western capitalism. In places like Paris, London, New York and the great cities of the world that have big economies with multiple large sectors, Malta is almost entirely dependent on tourism. What this means is that while some cities in Malta have thrived and the people are prosperous, there are literally entire cities in Malta that are abandoned. High-rise apartments, shops, historic places, all left abandoned because they didn't catch on with the tourists.
When I lived in France I traveled to Avignon. It's one of the most famous cities in France because in the 1300s a series of Popes fled Rome to avoid its corruption and re-established the papacy in Avignon. A new Italian Pope declared himself in Rome and soon Europe broke out among nationalistic lines as the French rallied their allies to war against their enemies. It was a whole bloody mess and eventually the Roman popes won. Avignon became a center of mystery and a travel hotspot and to this day remains a nice and culturally significant city.
What you might not know is that there is a massive castle just a few miles north of Avignon that is almost completely abandoned. Fort St. Andre was used to overlook the river and is an incredible fortress that has stood for near a millenia, but is mostly unheard of, with not a soul walking its walls. When I went there was one person in the ticket office (which itself was a tiny room that barely managed to fit in some generic castle merchandise) and no one walking around the castle, despite it being one of the largest and best preserved I have ever been in.
While the structure remained intact, few people visited so trees and weeds have grown among the buildings in its interior.
The houses inside the castle.
Fort St. Andre has the misfortune of not having any particular historical interest, and its just far enough away from Avignon that this mighty stone castle has faded from memory. It's hard to imagine that the people overlooking it would think it would be forgotten; the castle overlooks the entire low valley, and is itself a colossal structure.
Mussolini wanted to turn Rome into a new center of the world. As such he built the Esposizione Universale Roma, a place filled with Fascist-style architecture: large imposing buildings, statues and murals of idealized people, and broad open spaces (as opposed to traditional, cramped European cities). What was meant to be the center of the world has become a suburb of Rome, a shopping district and night club area. Not exactly what Benito intended. Looking around at the bankers in suits and the young people heading to the discotheques while moms push their babies around in strollers pas the McDonalds, I wonder how many people know that this place was intended to be the center of all power on Earth by the Mussolini's government.
Of all the places I've traveled, the mysterious, little-known and mostly over-looked places have been among my favorites.
