Berlin

Italians hold the top position among foreign tourists in Berlin. Flights are cheaper than visiting a restaurant.

They’re simply everywhere. They are shooting photos of the residues of the wall or queuing at the sausage stand. They arrive on Friday or Saturday and depart Sunday evening or Monday morning in time to go back to work. Italians are pouring into Berlin as 48-hour weekend tourists in droves and it’s no wonder since the online flight specials cost less than an outing closer to their home cities. Among all foreign visitors to Berlin, Italians hold first place. According to the latest statistics by Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH (BTM), between January and November 2009, the hotels counted about 226,000 guests from Italy, who booked more than 647,000 overnight stays. Over the past ten years the numbers have risen continuously. In 2000, the statistics showed only 67,000 Italian guests. Airlines are taking advantage of business with mini-breaks. EasyJet, Ryanair, but also Air Berlin, Wind Jet and sometimes even Alitalia offer dirt-cheap prices to Berlin. Every Friday, nine direct flights land in Tegel and Schönefeld from the chief Italian cities, five from Milan and Bergamo, three from Rome and one from Venice. On Saturday there are also direct flights from Turin, Pisa, Olbia and Naples. Tickets cost 52 euros round trip – for example with EasyJet from Malpensa/Milan airport, booked only one week in advance. A short break is cheapest; Ryanair offers discounts for travellers who carry only hand luggage.

These same airlines often also arrange cheap hotel rooms. The tourists Lucia and Cristian spent 120 euros per person for two days from Friday to Sunday including hotel. “We’re staying in a very lovely youth hostel,” the couple, who flew on Ryanair from Bergamo, relates. “We landed Friday evening and went straight to a German restaurant for dinner.” This is the first time in Berlin for both of them. What do Italians do for 48 hours in Berlin, what do they see, who do they organize their tours? Lucia and Cristian took advice from a friend who once lived in Berlin. Lorenzo and Alessia afforded themselves a city guide, an Italian emigrant who earns extra money on the side with the job. Alessia and Lorenzo from Avellino in Campania also arrived on an EasyJet flight and will stay only two nights. Saturday morning, they visit the wall museum. “We asked our tour guide to show us the city centre,” the young people explain. “He suggested a four-hour walk through Mitte, but it was too cold for us. This afternoon we’re heading to KaDeWe.” So far, the two haven’t seen very much of the city. “We didn’t have enough time,” they tell me, “but we’ll be back.”

Berlin is not only the destination of young couples; entire groups of friends enjoy the city at the weekend. Saturday evening at seven, Eugenio, Italo, Angelo, Edno, Andrea, Alessio, Cristian, Lucio and Paolo are still in the dome of the Reichstag, the only sight they are interested in. The nine friends have known each other since childhood. They come from Pescara in the Abruzzi and booked a special offer for flight and hotel from Rome. “We arrived Friday evening,” Eugenio tells me. “After we put down our suitcases in the hotel, we plunged into the night life around Alexanderplatz.” Their tour of the nightspots ended at seven in the morning at a doner shop. “We won’t see many museums,” they friends relate, “we’ll be leaving already on Sunday evening. We want to see the city and have some fun.” Girlfriends can do it, too; Federica, Sara, Elisabetta and Tania from Bassano del Grappa in Venetia arrived on a flight from Venice Saturday afternoon. They plan to visit a flea market at the Mauerpark in Prenzlauer Berg on Sunday. “We’ll be flying back Monday morning, but first we want to find some souvenirs,” they explain. “We still feel a little unfamiliar here. It’s our first time in Berlin and we’re not exactly sure what we can see in two days.”

Sunday evening at seven, Massimo and Mariateresa are leaving the Pergamum Museum. They, too, arrived with a cheap airline. “But, we’ve been here before. We took advantage of an offer to come back,” they say. “If you look carefully for special offers, a flight can cost less than spending an evening at a restaurant in Italy.”