“How will we live together? “ The question appears everywhere in Venice at the beginning of autumn. The theme of the 2021 Architecture Biennale curiously resonates with the torments of an entire city, struck by the spectacular rebound, in August, of tourism that it enjoys and suffers at the same time. Every day, more visitors to island Venice than the local population – around 50,000.
With the gradual lifting of health restrictions linked to Covid-19, the inhabitants of Veneto, then all of Italy, then neighboring countries have returned. Sometimes by the day, from Austria, Croatia or Slovenia. Already some Americans are added, the most hoped for. While waiting for the Chinese, in a few years, and the whole middle class of emerging countries who have never had the chance to see the Serenissima. The windfall seems inexhaustible, no matter what the repeated warnings from Unesco.
After eighteen months of observing the economic damage caused by under-tourism, it was in Venice that overtourism first reappeared. In the city that already embodied it before the pandemic. With onlookers come back the questions: what cohabitation between visitors and inhabitants? What remedy for monoactivity? What flow management? In the sestiere Venetian, from Giudecca to Cannaregio, everyone has their own opinion and, he thinks, a solution.
“A form of politeness”
The mayor on the right with Berlusconian accents, businessman Luigi Brugnaro, is no exception. He lives on dry land, like the majority of his 260,000 fellow citizens. Reelected in the first round in 2020, he promises to implement a radical measure evoked for decades: the compulsory and paying reservation – from 3 to 10 euros depending on the day – to enter the historic center, along with gates to validate his ticket. . Reservations for nights in a hotel or furnished tourist apartment will serve as a pass, and the list of exemptions has not yet been finalized. The concept of a “museum city” would become a reality.
“Venice can no longer welcome just anyone at all times” Simone Venturini, deputy mayor in charge of tourism
Scheduled for the 1er July 2020, postponed to 2021 then to 1er January 2022, and now set for April 2022, will this mandatory reservation see the light of day? Connoisseurs of the Venetian microcosm doubt it.
Paolo and Nicola, gondoliers, watching for the barge in front of the Papadopoli spawn, are slowly preparing for it. Paolo, blue stripes: “They’re nuts! Would you find it normal to have a portico at the entrance to your city? “ Nicola, red stripes: “It would be a good idea, because there were probably too many people, and especially too much waste. But they will never get there. ” Both, unanimous: ” It’s like the MOSE [le système de digues flottantes censé protéger la ville des épisodes d’« acqua alta », les hautes eaux]. We don’t talk about it anymore, because we know it will never happen. ” Even! Two models of gantry cranes were installed on the island of Tronchetto, for technical tests. And the deputy mayor in charge of tourism, Simone Venturini, proudly asserts: “It is a unique city in the world, and we ask tourists something unique in the world: to come to Venice, you have to make a reservation. She can no longer accommodate just anyone at any time and you are asked to be polite towards her. The will is not to dissuade people from coming, but to change the psychological approach. It is no longer a city “fast food”. “
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