Fewer people are living in Venice than there used to be. There are now less than 50,000 people living there. In contrast, there were about 200,000 people living there in the 1970s. The main reason for this is the rise in tourists.
More than twenty million people visited the area last year, which shows the difference between the number of people who live there and those who come to visit. People who want to visit Venice will now have to pay a fee because the city is getting too crowded with tourists. The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, said, “The goal is not to shut down the city, but also not to let it blow up.”
Some people in St. Mark got the wrong idea when the program started, which is why protesters gathered in Piazzale Roma to show their resistance to the new rule. The protesters didn’t like living in a closed city, and some said the entrance fee was like going to an amusement park.
Many people know that the fee probably won’t stop people from visiting the area because many people are more likely to go to the location anyway.
Matteo Secchi, who runs an activist group for locals, said, “Almost the whole city is against it.” You can’t charge people to enter a city. Making it into a theme park is all they’re doing. Are we really kidding?”
One hundred thousand people signed up for the program on its first day, and sixteen thousand of them paid the fee. The people who didn’t pay the fee did so because they were staying in a hotel, were students or commuters, or were visiting family or friends.
