"Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice”, said Marco Polo to Kublai Khan in Italo Calvino’s seminal book, Invisible Cities. Once the heart of a powerful maritime republic, Venice indeed houses many cities inside its intricate network of canals, alleys, bridges, and squares. Renowned for its unique architectural beauty, Renaissance history, and cultural significance — and, of course, for being built in the middle of the water — over the past decades, Venice has become one of the most notable victims of overtourism, receiving an estimated 30 million visitors per year.
The figures are astonishing, far outnumbering the 50,000 residents that call Venice home — 120,000 less than its population in the early 1950s, when city dwellers started to drive away, bothered by the permanent noise and overcrowded walkways.
Venice is a flagrant case study for the effects of excessive tourism in the world. A humongous contingent of people that floods its open spaces, driven by the city’s unique features and architecture, thirsting for its authenticity, ends up finding historical façades populated with some of the same generic stores and restaurants found in many other global metropolises. Well, mostly. Of course there still is authenticity in Venice, but it’s undeniable that the “Queen of the Adriatic” exemplifies the most controversial aspect of mass tourism: it slowly destroys the very source of value that once attracted people.
Architecture is one of these attractions. In a city as fragile as Venice, it is no surprise that the constant flow of millions of tourists — many of whom staying only for the day — shows its effects on the city’s infrastructure: worn out surfaces, cracked walls, it even looks like some parts of the city stand up by enchantment. And who would disbelieve it?
It is not by chance that UNESCO threatened to add Venice in its List of World Heritage in Danger in 2023, a move that led the city authorities to create and implement an entry fee in April this year, charging day trippers a €5 fee. Received with animosity from both tourists and residents, the new measure seems like a necessary step, and Venice officials hope that by implementing this new entry charge, the city will become more liveable for residents and enjoyable to visitors. This tax goes in the same direction as the law approved in 2021 banning cruise ships from the city’s canals. Images from before that time show the absurdity in allowing such enormous ships into the fragile cityscape, putting excessive pressure on its historic infrastructure.
One can argue that these measures jeopardize the city’s main source of revenue (although tourism money is usually redirected to tourism again), or say it makes public spaces less public (yet a 5 Euro fee may not significantly impact tourists who already have the privilege of visiting “La Serenissima”), but the fact is that after decades of excessive tourism, the authorities are finally taking measures to protect the city and its invaluable architecture.
Actions to make it last. Longer… forever. It may go against the natural cycle, that is probably accelerated when talking about a city built over the sea, but Venice does that. It makes us act irrationally, and perhaps, just like Marco Polo, we are just afraid of losing it.
