Napa Valley, about an hour and a half’s drive from San Francisco, has become known throughout the United States as allegedly the nation’s best wine-producing region. It has also become (has worked hard to become, I should say) the kind of place Americans seem to prefer for their holidays. In addition to its natural beauties, and the chance to eat and drink very well at high prices, Napa has started filling the summer with art exhibits, cooking schools, contests, auctions, and concerts, to show that culture is not forgotten.
And yet the hordes of tourists who come to Napa every summer are part of the tangle of problems that are tied up with the valley’s attractions, as tourist facilities gobble up scarce land that is, after all, necessary to make the wines that made the valley famous in the first place.
Comments