6 hours ago
8
Name: Venice tourists.
Age: They have been turning up since the mid-18th century.
Appearance: A blot on an otherwise beautiful landscape.
Surely they’re just there to have a good time? Increasingly, they seem to be hellbent on having too good a time.
Are you referring to high spirits of a prosecutable nature? Yes, that sort of thing.
Can you be more specific? In the latest example, a couple from the UK were caught celebrating the end of their holiday with a swim in the canal.
And that’s frowned upon, is it? It’s illegal. The couple were reported to police, fined €450 (£390) each and banned from Venice for 48 hours, effectively ending their holiday.
That’s harsh. Not to Venetians. The supporters of a campaign group are calling for much higher fines and permanent bans.
What campaign group? It’s called Venezia NON è Disneyland.
Are you allowed to swim in the canals at Disneyland, then? Not really, no. Two years ago, a man was arrested for stripping naked and wading into the water of the It’s a Small World ride, but that’s another story.
I hadn’t realised canal swimming was such a big problem in Venice. It is certainly a perennial one. In 2023 a man was filmed jumping off a 30ft building into a canal. On several occasions people have jumped off the Rialto Bridge while drunk, sometimes incurring injury. And in 2022, two Australians were caught surfing in the Grand Canal.
But apart from that, the tourists are pretty well behaved? Oh my, no. They sunbathe in bikinis in front of historic churches. They paddleboard on waterways. They speed through the world heritage site on bicycles and electric scooters. They litter, feed pigeons and block overcrowded bridges.
What’s to be done? The authorities are cracking down – since the beginning of the year officials have issued more than 1,000 expulsion orders for infractions.
Is it working? Well, it’s hard when the number of daily visitors is sometimes nearly twice the actual population of the city, but efforts are also being made to limit numbers.
What kind of efforts? For one thing, they’ve introduced a tourist tax of €5 for day trippers – applied on the 54 busiest days of the year – which doubles if you book last-minute.
What a rip-off. I certainly won’t be visiting Venice any time soon. That’s the idea.
Do say: “Tourism is important, but Venice must be defended from those who would disrespect it.”
Don’t say: “Get out of that canal! Disneyland is NOT Venice!”
