THE NEW GUIDELINES FOR THE URBAN REORDERING OF VENICE WILL ALSO CONCERN ST MARK’S SQUARE

It is news from yesterday that the Venice city council - with the sub-commissioner Natalino Manno - and the Soprintendenza alle Belle arti e Paesaggio per Venezia e Laguna, with the new person in charge, the architect Emanuela Carpani, have presented the guidelines for an overall reordering of the city’s urban furniture related to the commercial use of public space and the display methods of businesses, itinerant and permanent, which will start in a few days from Campo San Geremia. The reordering will gradually affect all the main streets in the city through to St Mark’s Square and its surrounding area. The plan is intended to reinstate conditions of decorum, unifying common elements such as show windows, awnings, signs, advertising, commercial art, furnishings, light sources and doors, windows and shutters. Enrico Tantucci yesterday noted in the ‘Nuova Venezia’ that the aim is to move stalls, check whether any are illegal, as seems to be the case, and make them moveable so they can be closed and moved at least at night. The plan is seen as a fight against stalls overflowing with trinkets and souvenirs of questionable taste, but it does not meet with the approval of the sectors concerned, who would have preferred that such complex and delicate decisions of this kind be taken by a future mayor and not by an administration under a commission.