A dramatic increase in the number of giant cruise ships steaming into Venice is bringing what residents fear is a vulgar touch of Las Vegas to a city known for more than a thousand years as La Serenissima.
A dramatic increase in the number of giant cruise ships steaming into Venice is bringing what residents fear is a vulgar touch of Las Vegas to a city known for more than a thousand years as La Serenissima.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of cruise liners docking in the Venetian lagoon in the last 15 years, rising from 206 in 1997 to 655 in 2011.
Critics say the giant ships are a jarring sight as they loom over the centuries-old churches, spires and terracotta roofs of the World Heritage listed city, once known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice.
They say the ships, some of them more than 1,000ft long with 13 decks and 5,000 passengers and crew, are too big, too intrusive and come far too close to sights such as St Mark's Square as they pass the entrance to the Grand Canal.
The biggest to enter the lagoon so far, the MSC Divina, was 135,000 tons - three times that of the Titanic.
For some Venetians, they have become emblematic of the mass tourism that threatens to overwhelm the city, turning it into a Disney-style architectural theme park and making life all but unbearable for its dwindling population, now down to a historic low of 58,000 people.
"These ships have no refinement or good taste, they are like floating Las Vegas hotels," said Silvio Testa, the spokesman for a group of Venetians opposed to the cruise vessels.
"Venice has always been a maritime city, but in the past ships adapted to the lagoon. Now the lagoon and the city are having to adapt to these monsters. We are losing an equilibrium that was built up over a thousand years."
More than 20 million tourists visit Venice each year, two million of them cruise ship passengers.
Opponents of the boats say they pollute the air and damage canal banks as they displace vast quantities of water on their way to and from Venice's cruise ship terminal. They also fear that dense fog, a storm or simply human error could cause the sort of maritime disaster seen in January on the Tuscan island of Giglio, where the Costa Concordia smashed into rocks with the loss of 32 lives.
"If just one ship makes a wrong manoeuvre, it would be a disaster," said Matteo Secchi, the head of Venessia.com, a campaign group. "If a ship loses control off St Mark's Square, it only has 100 metres before it rams into the banks. In 10 seconds there would be a catastrophe."
But the cruise ship industry said strict safety regulations, and the fact that the vessels sail along deep dredged channels which prevent them from straying off course, meant that the risk of a catastrophe was almost zero.
They pointed out that when cruise ships enter the lagoon, they are steered by the captain, two pilots and two tug boats. The cruise sector went on the offensive this week, arranging a lavish celebration of the port for 1,800 guests, in which they laid out the economic benefits that the ships bring to Venice.
Cruise ship passengers spend euros 50?million (pounds 40?million) in the city each year and the sector represents one fifth of Venice's economy.
Opponents of the industry were not so convinced of the benefits, saying that more than two thirds of passengers did not even bother disembarking to see the city. Mr Secchi said: "Those that do disembark spend a couple of hours wandering around, buy a gelato and a Carnival mask, and get back on board."
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