VENICE ADDED TO THE LIST OF 67 WORLD SITES AT RISK

Next year Venice will be added to the list of 67 historic and archaeological sites of world importance at risk by the World Monuments Fund (WMF). The reason for the choice, as specified a few days ago in New York by the president of the organisation, Bonnie Burham, is based on the increasingly evident problem of an economic model based on mass tourism that threatens to destroy the city. President Burham also invited public administrations and local bodies to act to reassess their policies on the city. Great concern was also expressed on the presence of large ships in St Mark’s Basin and the lack of cruise ship tourism regulation. It is apt to recall that the president of the Associazione Piazza San Marco, Alberto Nardi, recently spoke at an event held in the Gelateria Todaro in St Mark’s Square on the question of mass tourism. He expressed the need to regulate tourist flows in order to encourage tourism not of a high impact but of quality in the old city.