Riots in Venice? Well, perhaps protests is a better word because, when angry local residents took to the streets recently, clashing with law enforcement officers, they waved placards protesting: “Venice is not for sale, it must be protected” and “No tickets, dismantle the ticket barriers.”
The problem, Venetians say, is that the newly introduced fee of €5 (applicable on a total of 29 peak days, mostly at weekends) is not going to be effective in controlling the hoards of day trippers that pour into their ancient city daily.
“Who is going to baulk at paying €5, the price of an ice cream?” asked one local resident. “Turn styles to enter Venice?” said another, “what are we, a controlled environment like a theme park, or a museum?”
With many raising questions of privacy given that those entering the city have to put their data into the booking system, as well as the “unequal treatment of different categories of visitors,” locals are also loudly demanding rules to limit AirBnB as a way of solving the problem of affordable housing for residents. Alas today only some 50,000 inhabitants still live in the center of Venice, from a peak of 172,000 in 1951.
Pamela McCourt Francescone
Executive Editor
