The city of Florence is nobody’s mistress. Then again, too, the insinuation by a museum director that the crown city of the Italian Renaissance has been ruined by too much tourism will reverberate far beyond the lush terrain of Tuscany. 

The brouhaha began when the German head of the Galleria dell’Accademia, Cecilie Hollberg, told reporters this week that Florence “is very beautiful and I would like it to return to its citizens and not be crushed by tourism,” adding: “Once a city becomes a prostitute, it is difficult for it to become a virgin again.”

Cue an army of furious Florentines almost ready to toss an uppity curator into the muddy River Arno from the Ponte Vecchio. The Accademia Gallery, after all,  houses Michelangelo’s David, a marble masterpiece that epitomizes the high-caliber cultural treasures that are making Florence so popular that it is now vulnerable to  overtourism.

That curious global trend, kept in check by the Covid-19 pandemic, is now back with a vengeance in famous places like Florence and Venice that due to overcrowding can often now seem less like cities and more like theme parks. 

Ms. Hollberg’s comparison of contemporary Florence with what is said to be the world’s oldest profession is a twist on some verbiage from Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” but in Italy even the perception of denigrating the culture is rarely if ever a laughing matter. 

Florence’s deputy mayor, Alessia Bettini, subsequently suggested that were Florence really a meretrice — the polite Italian word for strumpet — then the question would be whether Florentines would be “the children of a prostitute, and tourists clients of a prostitute?”

Matteo Renzi, who sits in a coalition government with Prime Minister Meloni and also happens to represent Florence in Italy’s senate, said that Ms. Hollberg “should apologize or resign.”

In keeping with modern Western tradition, Ms. Hollberg has already done the former: “What I meant to say is that Florence must be a witness for all of Italy of an increasingly conscious tourism, not hit-and-run tourism,” she said in a statement put out by the museum. 

The Italian cultural minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, called her original remarks “serious and offensive” to all of Italy and pledged to “evaluate all appropriate initiatives” — which it is understood from Italian press reports could include seeking a replacement to lead the renowned Florentine museum. 

After the current furor dies down, though, the crisis of overtourism is likely to worsen in much of Europe, where the tourism industry is a major economic driver. Last year, revenue from tourism accounted for more than 10 percent of Italy’s output. 

Renaissance cities and charming hill towns alike are reeling from a tourist onslaught that is quashing authenticity and driving locals out as short-term rental services like Airbnb alter the real estate landscape in touristy city centers, and not always for the best.

The backlash is going to hit tourists in the wallet. This coming April, Venice will start charging daytrippers a fee of about $6.50 to enter the city center. Meanwhile, at Dubrovnik, tourists can now be fined for dragging their noisy roller bag suitcases across the old cobblestones. That Croatian city has in recent years seen tourism explode thanks in large part to its serving as a filming location for “Game of Thrones.”

Italian cities like Florence and Venice are among that famously photogenic range of places like Paris and Bruges that require no cinematic springboard for their popularity. Iconic spots  like the Greek islands are included in that catalog.

The challenges facing civic authorities are daunting, from traffic tie-ups to sewage control, but withering soundbites about the delicate state of tourist hotspots could be the beginning of a solution by simply sounding the alarm. In respect of that, the summer of 2024 will be one to watch.