Venice – IB Tourism Video – Problems.

Translation from Italian (sorry for English mistakes): For Journeyman Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_676XCs3Qo

1.25

Almost all the Venetian tourism is, as we label it, a "bite and run" tourism.

1.51

Well, you know, Venice is an international myth, and so it attracts also because of its most "mythological" aspects.

2.22

I had a small boat, and I was cruising the small canals, but before approaching the Canal Grande I realized that the waves were really contrasting me... so I told my son Mattia: "Let's go back, the Canal Grande has now evidently become a motorway". And this displeases me.

3.08

Well, if the tourist is a person who comes to Venice just to have a run and leave, he'd better not come at all. Nevertheless I think that something "cultural" should be found even for the tourist who doesn't have the possibility [to stay here more time].

5.03

Unfortunately Venice is included in the "Europe in nine days" circuit, which is simply an absurdity. This demonstrates we are paying the penalty of Mass Tourism, without any doubt. One who comes to Venice has to take advantage of this particular occasion. I mean... if he does not it is just like going to any other place on Earth. It would be a good thing to make a little effort, to engage... and to read something before, to study I would say.

7.53

(in French) There is this one, that changes colour according to the light.

... and then they feel free to act as if they were on a beach : bare chested, without t-shirts, sitting on the ground, even eating on the ground. I have been in the States, in England, in France. I have never seen an Englishman behave like this, or a single German behave like they behave in Venice in some cases.

8.52

It's very easy: when you buy a travel ticket you add a 5000₤ or 10000₤ (2,50€ or 5€) tax, just to keep the town clean. Keeping clean a town like Venice is very expensive, and, in general, Venice is simply dirty.

9.18

Well, that was a provocation, that was a... listen to me: a tax of that kind will never be added, because Venice is, after all, a normal city.

10.12

Venice is more alive than ever, and this is demonstrated by the fact that there are many, many people who want to visit Venice. The problem is seeing that the people don't come all at the same moment.

10.46

Perhaps I am a bit strange : I live very well together with tourists and with the unfortunately fews Venetians. But this recalls me of when I was a child... the Venetians were four, five, six times more than now.

11.18

[What's the matter] with the tourists ? I think... in my opinion the navigation. In the sense that vaporettos are badly organized, they are not conveniently spread-out... there is no difference between the vaporettos for tourists only, let's say, and the ones for locals only, as it probably should be. I mean... the summer period is a total mess, a true bedlam.

11.48

Yes, if you want to... well you have to come to Rialto to economize the shopping. Supermarkets are always crowded and then... I mean... you have to transport heavy bags... it's difficult -- They are expensive -- Yes, it's not that easy, this is why many young Venetians leave.

12.31

... because in reality the vaporettos, these water means of transportation are very very e-xpensive, so we make the tourists pay nothing more than the real cost of the transport (6,50€), and the Venetians pay, really to fight against the higher cost of life and depopulation, a ticket on easy terms (1€).

13.00

And this entails discomforts. In reality Venice is big, it has a vast old town centre beyond San Marco and Rialto, but hardly known, badly... enjoyed by the common tourist.

13.44

If we managed to assume this strategy, fitting the spaces, opening all the necessary construction sites etc... then Venice could easily live together not only with fifteen millions tourists, but even with twenty or twenty-five millions tourists without any sort of problem.