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‘Are we joking?’: Venice residents protest as city starts charging visitors to enter (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Day-trippers will have to pay €5 to visit Italian city under scheme designed to protect it from excess tourism

Authorities in Venice have been accused of transforming the famous lagoon city into a “theme park” as a long-mooted entrance fee for day trippers comes into force.

Venice is the first major city in the world to enact such a scheme. The €5 (£4.30) charge, which comes into force today, is aimed at protecting the Unesco world heritage site from the effects of excessive tourism by deterring day trippers and, according to the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, making the city “livable” again.

But several residents’ committees and associations have planned protests for Thursday, arguing that the fee will do nothing to resolve the issue.

“I can tell you that almost the entire city is against it,” claimed Matteo Secchi, who leads Venessia.com, a residents’ activist group. “You can’t impose an entrance fee to a city; all they’re doing is transforming it into a theme park. This is a bad image for Venice … I mean, are we joking?”

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[-] r00ty@kbin.life 5 points 6 months ago

You have to pay 5€ to visit

You only have to pay that if you're a day visitor. If you're staying on one of the main islands, you don't need to pay. The place you're staying should have a tourism site ID code, which you can enter on the site to get exemption.

a giant sewer city

I never get why this image is so prevalent. Just visit a month or two before or after the main summer months. May or September perhaps, it's usually still warm, and I've visited many times now and only had a few days when in a few select areas it was a bit smelly. The idea it's common is just plain wrong based on all of my visits.

with no trees

There are trees quite literally everywhere. Maybe not on Rialto bridge, though. Even next to San Marco, there are some nice gardens. Further along at the Biennale, you will see many more gardens. There's also a garden right by Piazzale Roma and the train station. Once you leave the main tourist areas, you'll see plenty of trees pretty much everywhere.

two people per every square meter

Go slightly off season, and actually leave Rialto and San Marco alone once you've seen them. You can walk for literally 2 minutes and go from serious crowds to totally alone from either of those locations.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago

Yeah this is the same person who would complain about Disneyland being overcrowded while visiting on July 4.

[-] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 points 6 months ago

If you're staying on one of the main islands, you don't need to pay

But if you're staying on one of the main islands, instead of paying the 5 euro entry ticket you pay the (up to) 5 euro hotel tax

Source: https://www.comune.venezia.it/sites/comune.venezia.it/files/documenti/Tributi/ids/TARIFFE%20IDS%20-%20STRUTTURE%20con%20classificazione%20L.R.%2011_2013_valide%20dal%2001.07.21-2.pdf

(Note: 5 euro is the hotel tax in the highest season on the highest level, an hostel in low season is 1 euro. But Venice is inherently more expensive than the rest of the country, so if someone wants to save money it's still cheaper to sleep in an hostel in Mestre, in the mainland, then pay train+entry ticket)

[-] r00ty@kbin.life 1 points 6 months ago

But if you’re staying on one of the main islands, instead of paying the 5 euro entry ticket you pay the (up to) 5 euro hotel tax

City tax is a thing in pretty much every Italian tourist city. We've done the stay in Mestre thing, and it is indeed cheaper (the train ticket is really cheap). But, you have to be clear of the main islands before the last train/bus and it's much better to not have to worry about such things.

There's some decent priced places to stay on the island. I mean not compared to a hostel for sure, but still reasonable overall compared to a hotel.

this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024

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