The view is the most important thing?: Tourist vs. Traveler

The movie A Room with a View, made by E M Foster book, allow me to understand more the concepts of being a tourist and a traveler. The movie shows us a group of British women visiting Florence: Lucy, Charlotte, etc. Right from the start we can see that they were on a vacation trip to Florence with a tourist mind. The first minutes of the movie the main issue was that Lucy and Charlotte, her chaperone, were upset because they do not received the room that they wanted, a room with a view. This might be the first example that shows us the idea of being a tourist and being hardheaded about a simple thing and just wanting a magnificent view of the place.

Later in the movie we confirm that Lucy was visiting Florence as a foolish tourist. When an Italian ask her that if she were traveling as a student of art, and she says: “No, I am afraid not. I’m here as a tourist”. Then the Italian said: “We residents sometime pity you poor tourist not a little. Handed about like a parcel of goods from Venice to Florence, Florence to Rome, quite unconscious of anything outside Baedeker. Their one anxiety to get done and flew and go on elsewhere.” This perspective that the Italian had toward the tourists and Lucy, is the same one that Jamaica Kincaid had toward tourists visiting Antigua. There was a part in the movie were I could see clearly Kincaid expressing her anger and point of view to Ms. Charlotte Bartlett and Ms. Lavish. When both women were walking in the streets of Florence and get lost, and Ms. Lavish said: “Two women lost in Florence, that is what I call an adventure”, a completely act of ignorance. How would they possible think that it would be an adventure and they will get to know better Florence in that way, if they don’t have any minimal background knowledge of the place they were. This was an ignorant act from both parts. Similarly in that part of the movie, Ms. Lavish says a horrible comment toward a local citizen of Italy: “Look at that adorable wine cart. How he stares at us, dear simple soul.” How could she refer to a person in that way, “simple soul”, like if he were something less, like if he wasn’t capable of doing something just by himself. Therefore this reminds us how English and Antigua’s tourist in Jamaica Kincaid book refer to the local citizens.

Contrary to these British women, George Emmerson is more kind of a traveler. We could see through the movie that something is changing insight him, when days passes in Italy. The attitude he had toward the fight in the street, the sweetness that he sees the landscape of Italy, and wanting to walk instead of taking a ride back to their hotel, are things that make us think that he is visiting this country with open-minded and with a different perspective than his group.

This movie resume and explain us very well both concepts: tourist and traveler. Many people think that these concepts are the same thing, but they are very different. The tourist is a person that has no background about the history of the places that are visiting and have an ignorant attitude toward it. Nevertheless a traveler is a person that wants to know more about the history, culture, inside problems and economy of the place that is visiting.