Is Rome is about to be ruined by Emily in Paris fans?

While fans of Emily in Paris will be eagerly tuning into the latest season of the Netflix show today - locals in Rome may be grimacing at the thought of what is to come.

In the latest fifth series, the bushy-tailed, bright-eyed marketing executive protagonist of the series, played by Lily Collins, takes her optimistic American 'charm' from the French capital to Italy, so she can spend quality time with her new boyfriend Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini).

And as Parisians winced through the beret-wearing main charcter's stumbling pronunciations of 'champignons' as she hopped around the Eiffel Tower and trotted by Montmartre, now their European neighbours must sit through not just Emily, but influencers hoping to emulate her, who are already scooting around stradas in Vespas and chucking coins into the Trevi Fountain.

The end of the fourth series saw Emily riding off into the sunset on a bike to the tune of Hilary Duff's What Dreams Are Made Of - a nod to The Lizzie McGuire movie - with Marcello, after moving to her new apartment in Rome.

Since the finale aired last September, dozens of influencers have already flocked to Rome to recreate their own Emily in Rome moment on Vespa tours that can cost up to €150 per person.  

Content creator Shazlyssa posted a TikTok video of her and her partner touring around Rome in sidecars and visiting historic sites.

'Your reminder to always choose Marcello in a world full of Gabriels', she wrote, referring to Emily's ex-boyfriend Gabriel (Lucas Bravo).

Another travel influencer named Maraya also shared her experience of exploring Rome on the back of a motorbike, adding in her caption that the tour was 'featured in Emily in Paris'.

Other social media stars sought out the filming locations in Rome in order to recreate the fashion that Emily in Paris is so known for, such as style influencer Wendy Drago.

Wendy shared a video of herself looking glamorous in different outfits as she posed in front of locations in the series.

The new series is expected to inspire even more fans to jet to Italy in a bid to live out Emily's fictional life for themselves.

In theory, this will boost Italy's tourism sector even more, something that the country's Prime Minister Georgia Meloni plans to turn into a year-round economy powerhouse.

However, Emily in Paris fans previously drew criticism for overwhelming popular neighbourhoods and sites in the French capital as they hunted down filming locations and took selfies in huge numbers.

Angry Parisians branded the hoards of fans of the series 'l'invasion des imbéciles', which translates as 'the invasion of the morons', and several cafes that were featured in the show had their shutters scrawled in hostile graffiti declaring phrases such as 'Emily Not Welcome'.

The same could happen in Rome if Emily in Paris fans descend on the city - which already suffers from significant overtourism - to snap photos and videos of themselves living la dolce vita.

The new series only premiered today, Thursday December 18, but there are already tours promising to give fans a taste of Emily's adventures.

One tour is charging €180 per person to drive them around Rome in a vintage Fiat 500, visiting landmarks like the constantly-packed Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps that feature in the show.

Elsewhere, a running tour offers to take fitness-obsessed fans on a heart-pounding exploration of Rome, hitting many of the same spots while also promising to 'uncover Rome's hidden streets and secret corners' at the crack of dawn for a cool €110 per person.

Before crowd controls were introduced to the Trevi Fountain in late 2024, the iconic attraction drew between 10,000 and 12,000 tourists every single day.

Now, a new queuing system to prevent large crowds only permits a maximum of 400 people to gather around the fountain, and city authorities are reportedly considering charging tourists to visit the site from January.

An additional influx of visitors keen to live life like Emily in Paris may be a rather unwelcome site for both locals and tourists, who already face hours-long queues to access it.

Other locations featured in the series include the five-star luxury Hotel de Russie, which also made appearances in 2010's Eat, Pray, Love and the 1960 thriller classic La Dolce Vita.

Luxury designer brand Fendi features heavily in the series, with The Fendi Headquarters, located off Viale della Civiltà del Lavoro in Rome, serving as a very fashionable meeting point in the film and the Fendi boutique at Roma Palazzo turning into a romantic shopping trip. 

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Mercati di Traiano, a large complex of ruins near the Colosseum thought to be the world's oldest shopping mall, may also become overrun with tourists keen to recreate a tender scene between Emily and Marcello.

Another romantic scene takes place at the Aventine Keyhole, a famous peephole on Aventine Hill at the Villa del Priorato di Malta that offers a view of the dome of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City through the Santa Maria del Priorato Garden in Malta - creating the illusion of seeing three countries at once.

Fans will no doubt flock to this location, which has so far been considered something of a hidden gem - but, after Emily in Paris, will likely generate even bigger queues and more hours of waiting.

Emily and her entourage also visit a number of restaurants in Rome, a city that takes fierce pride in its food. The producers chose several rooftop restaurants, including Settimo at the Sofitel hotel and the Orient Express la Minerva's restaurant, to showcase sweeping views of the city.

The new series of Emily in Paris comes amid a rise in anti-tourism protests in Italian cities and other popular Mediterranean hotspots that are grappling with more tourists than they have the infrastructure to handle.

The Italian prime minister and Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè shared their plans for the tourism sector at the World Travel and Tourism Council Summit in Rome earlier this year.

They hope to restore calm among locals by working to redistribute tourists to lesser-known spots around the country in order to ease pressure in the busiest places.

According to Meloni, the vast majority (95 per cent) of tourists congregate in just four per cent of the country, placing immense pressure on the infrastructure in the most famous areas and pricing locals out of their own neighbourhoods.

Santanchè also expressed a desire to get rid of tourist seasons, reported Globetrender, as part of an effort to redistribute tourist numbers and spend throughout the year instead of just in the summer.