How Narcissism Killed the Tourist

Look up images of Alpe di Siuse and Lago di Braies on Instagram, and you will find thousands of posts showing what appears to be a glorious alpine meadow and a captivatingly secluded glacial lake, ringed by the peaks of the Dolomites. It’s almost always the same view — the mountain money shot. Sometimes in the foreground of the image, there is a solitary hiker or, in winter, a lonely skier; on the lake, there may be a single, un-manned boat. They are images that would warm the cockles of any searcher for the Romantic experience of the sublime for the last 200 years, of humanity thrillingly put into perspective by the grandeur of nature.