A STAND OPENS NEXT TO THE ‘JUST CLEARED’ BELL TOWER

Having just been cleared of the Consorzio Venezia Nuova building site, part of the paving next to the St Mark’s bell tower has been taken up by a stand entitled ‘Venezia Official Store’ run by the public company Ve.la. The stand sells tickets for museums, shows and public services, books, invitations to the casino and also distributes free information and advertising material. It is a genuine official ‘shop of the city’ that may remain in the shadow of the bell tower until September, so till the end of summer. This news was a surprise to businesses in the Square, and the provincial APT office, which fulfils more or less the same role a few metres away at the entrance to the Piazza dell’Ascension. In short, quite a few feathers were ruffled by this city council action, which suggests a lack of accord between those working in this sector in the St Mark’s area. Alberto Nardi, president of the Associazione Piazza San Marco, interviewed by the Gazzettino, which has published some articles on this subject, said that: ‘We were pleased that the building site was coming to an end. We knew absolutely nothing about this stand. Our regret is and remains that of the lack of any synergy between the institutions’.