Travelers Can Now Buy a Can of ‘100 Percent Authentic Air’ From Italy’s Lake Como

Travelers often fill their suitcases with souvenirs like refrigerator magnets, Christmas ornaments, keychains and postcards—little trinkets to remind them of their vacation. Now, those visiting the Italian lakeside town of Como have another, slightly less conventional item to bring home: a sealed can of Lake Como air.

ItalyComunica, a communications company, is selling 13.5-ounce cans of “pure air from the most beautiful lake in the world” for roughly $11 (€9.90) each. The cans—which are marketed as “luxurious” souvenirs on the product website—have a dark blue label with an illustration of a boat cruising through the water.

“Open it whenever you need a moment of escape, tranquility or simply beauty,” instructs the website. “Only those who visit Lake Como can want to buy our souvenir; memories are not bought but lived.

The man behind Lake Como Air is Davide Abagnale, a marketing specialist who initially started selling Lake Como posters.

The canned air is “not a product; it’s a tangible memory that you carry in your heart,” Abagnale tells CNN’s Issy Ronald and Barbie Latza Nadeau. He adds that, once travelers open the cans, they can repurpose them to hold pens and pencils.

Alessandro Rapinese, the mayor of Como, tells CNN that he would rather vacationers buy silk scarves, which the region is known for, or other souvenirs. However, he adds: “If someone wants to take some of their air home, that’s fine as long as they also take beautiful memories of this area.”

Still on topic of tourist traps, you can now buy a can of Lake Como air.

Yup, that's a real deal. pic.twitter.com/7hvJmZs1hd

— Crazy Moments in Italian Politics (@CrazyItalianPol) November 1, 2024

Lake Como, or Lago di Como in Italian, is a large body of water in Italy’s northern Lombardy region. It sits at the base of the Alps, not far from the border with Switzerland and about 50 miles north of Milan. Lake Como—and the villages and towns that surround it—has become a popular vacation destination. Celebrities like George Clooney own second homes in the region, and movies like Casino Royale (2006) and Ocean’s Twelve (2004) have been filmed there.

This is far from the first time canned air has been marketed to tourists. Savvy entrepreneurs have been selling similar products for decades. After World War II, an Italian businessman named Gennaro Ciaravolo began recycling empty food cans left behind by American troops, per NBC News’ Hannah Peart. He claimed to fill the cans with air from Naples, and sold them as “Aria di Napoli.”

Since 2014, the Canadian company Vitality Air has sold canisters full of fresh air from the Rocky Mountains. Customers can even choose whether they want air from Lake Louise or from Banff, among other products. In 2019, the Connecticut-based company Boost Oxygen appeared on the reality TV show “Shark Tank” and scored a $1 million loan from investor Kevin O’Leary.

In 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the relocation website My Baggage began selling bottles of air from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for around $33 (£25). Topped with cork stoppers, the bottles were meant to give homesick expats and travelers a brief whiff of home. Canned air from Iceland is also available.

In Colorado, mountain towns and other high-elevation destinations, “oxygen in a can” is sometimes marketed as an antidote to altitude sickness (though there’s little scientific evidence to support that claim). Though taking a few puffs of oxygen likely won’t hurt you, any benefits you get from canned air can probably be attributed to the placebo effect, experts say.

“It sounds nice and natural to be just getting extra oxygen, but I don’t think the science supports it,” Lindsay Forbes, a physician and expert in pulmonary sciences and critical care medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, tells Debra Melani an article posted on the university’s website. “There’s very real evidence that if you think something is going to help you, that it may in fact make you feel better.”

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.