In what seems to be a strange turn of events in today's tourism-driven world, the island of Sardinia is making an attempt to preserve it's natural beauty (and make a little money) by limiting tourism. The President of Sardinia, Renato Soru, has been fighting for a long time to put "luxury taxes" into effect, and he's finally won. Aimed mostly at the super rich (after all, Sardinia has been nicknamed "the playground of the rich"), the steep set of taxes will affect mostly items like second homes, private yachts, aircraft, and hotel rooms. Opposition of the new taxes are afraid it will drive too much tourism and development out of Sardinia, not to mention possibly give the country a negative image.

As much as I hate taxes, I always have to support efforts to preserve natural beauty and prevent too much tourism -- even if they do make money doing it.