In Lake Como, Italy’s famed beauty resort, a communications company found an original souvenir to sell to tourists. He pasteurizes air from the area into a can and sells it to visitors.

A CNN report specifically mentions that communications company ItalyComunica says it has bottled the air of Italy’s picturesque Lake Como for €9.90 a can.

Each can is said to contain 400 milliliters “100% authentic air” collected from Lake Como, a destination that has become increasingly popular with tourists in recent years thanks to its beauty and celebrity associations – George and Amal Clooney have a home nearby. Films such as “Casino Royale” and “House of Gucci” were filmed there.

The cans cost €9.90. Photo courtesy of CNN by Italycomunica srl

More than 5.6 million people visited Lake Como in 2023 and the numbers are constantly increasing, according to the Lombardy tourism office.

In an effort to capitalize on the number of visitors, marketing specialist Davide Abagnale first created an e-commerce site selling Lake Como posters after seeing so many posters of San Francisco and Los Angeles on their honeymoon in 2022.

Its latest initiative, selling canned air, aims to “create a souvenir that could easily be carried in a suitcase for tourists” and “something original, fun and even provocative,” a spokesperson for ItalyComunica told CNN.

“It’s not a product, it’s a tangible memory that you carry in your heart,” Abagnale told CNN, adding that once tourists return home and open the box, they can reuse it as a souvenir pen holder.

The mayor disagrees

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Not everyone agrees with this. Como mayor Alessandro Rapinese said it wouldn’t be his first idea for tourists and would rather they take home other souvenirs, such as the silk scarves for which the region is famous.

“It’s a new idea, but not for everyone,” he told CNN. “But as the mayor of one of the most beautiful cities in Italy, if someone wants to take some of his air home, that’s fine, as long as he also has good memories of this area.”

However, Como is not the first Italian tourist spot to offer a can of its best air. Abagnale says the idea came from other sites, such as Naples, where local air has been sold for years.

And in 2020, a company started selling bottles of ‘authentic’ air from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to provide UK residents abroad with the scent of home.

Tourists can also buy canned air in Iceland, and a Canadian company saw its sales boom in 2015 when hundreds of Chinese customers started buying canned air.