The article below from NYTimes.com
To Venetians’ Sorrow, the Sightseers Come in Battalions
June 10, 2004
By ALAN FEUER
VENICE, Italy - "Most people who come to visit Venice, they
are barbarians," Stefano Gorghetto said the other day,
adding to insure his point was made, "They pillage the
city."
Mr. Gorghetto, a psychologist and native-born Venetian,
spoke for many locals when he cursed the ugly
Fodor's-toting horde that even now was passing by his
window. "The tourists come, they urinate, they defecate,
and then arrivederci," he explained.
Venice, the delicate jewel of Italy, has been invaded over
centuries by Huns and Turks and Frenchmen. Its soldiers
have done battle with the Genovese and Franks.
Now, however, the city is besieged from within - sacking
armies come with credit cards and fanny packs. Tourists
have taken Venice over, crowding its streets, throwing
trash in its canals and turning what was once a dynasty
into a city-sized museum -- more commodity than community.
"The historic center of Venice has become a kind of
Disneyland," said Mr. Gorghetto, 50, who lives on the main
tourist strip between the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's
Square.
The crush is bad enough that recently he bought a summer
house - in a different part of Venice. His 84-year-old
mother cannot leave the house after 8:30 a.m. Why? "That's
when the cows start coming," Mr. Gorghetto said.
According to the local tourist board, 6 million visitors
spend the night in Venice every year. A further 15 million
flood its tender streets and alleys only for the day.
Only 70,000 people live in Venice, so the math gets kind of
ugly. At the height of the tourist season - April, May and
June - there are sometimes twice as many tourists as
inhabitants.
"Day-trippers, I think you call them," said Dr. Donato
Concato, executive director of the Tourist Promotional
Agency for Venice. "This is the problem."
Dr. Concato's approach has been to spread the tourists out
around the city. His agency's Web site, for example, lists
walking tours that are off the beaten track. It also
includes information on hidden local treasures intended to
lure the tourists from their regular routines.
The mayor's office, meanwhile, has taken a slightly sterner
attitude. Last year, it posted six new rules and
regulations for the tourists - a sort of visitor's list of
Thou Shalt Not.
1. Thou shalt not eat lunch on the street.
2. Thou shalt not litter.
3. Thou shalt not swim in the canals.
4. Thou shalt not ride bicycles or other vehicles.
5. Thou shalt not undress in public.
6. Thou shalt not walk around in bathing suits.
"Day-trippers," the mayor, Paolo Costa, said in his office
the other day. It was apparently a typical refrain.
Already, visitors to Venice pay five times as much as
locals do to ride the public transportation. Big touring
coaches are taxed $180 each before they enter town.
Currently, the mayor is trying to publicize the Venice
Card, essentially a tourist version of the highway toll
pass. The card grants holders discounts at museums and bus
stops. It also allows them to cut ahead in line.
Eventually, the mayor said, he plans to extend the Venice
Card to restaurants, hotels, even certain shops, adding
proudly that 20,000 people used the card in April. This,
however, is a fraction of what it will take to save the
city, he acknowledged. "We need 20,000 people to use it
every day."
The problem is that Venice is addicted to tourism, which
accounts for 70 percent of its economy. As with any drug,
however, the chance of overdose exists. It is often said
that the allure of Venice is more at risk from the tourist
flood than from sinking into the sea.
Businesses that do not profit from the tourist trade are
leaving. A visitor can spend an hour searching for a
supermarket. In a city famous for the Venice Film Festival,
there is exactly one cinema in the center of the town.
To that end, Mayor Costa plans to announce a project in the
next few months to attract small businesses to Venice by
offering them space in a quiet, undeveloped part of town
called Arsenale. There will be no tax breaks or giveaways,
however. Venice itself will be used to close the deal.
"We plan to tell these companies that if you have to spend
10 hours a day in front of a computer screen, you might as
well do it here,'' the mayor said.
His nightmare vision, of course, is that one of the many
ocean liners that sail through Venice every year will
eventually go prow-first onto St. Mark's Square. Earlier
this month, that nearly happened when a 655-foot-long
cruise ship named the Mona Lisa beached in the fog in a
muddy channel off the square.
Mayor Costa, horrified, has promised to reroute the cruise
ships, which are taller than most tall buildings in Venice.
For Mr. Gorghetto, the promise cannot be fulfilled too
soon.
"I want tourists to come to Venice, but they have to
understand its sacredness," he said. "Venice will open its
arms to anybody if they love it."
His companion, Katarina Mihaylova, was not so optimistic.
"The tourists are the pigeons in St. Mark's Square," Ms.
Mihaylova said. "They come, look around, leave and don't
even know where they've been."