Planning on visiting Venice this summer? You’ll need to book in advance. Yep, really. And if you’re going next year, you’ll have to pay an entry fee.
The Italian lagoon city’s mayor made the proclamation during a packed Easter weekend, telling the Corriere del Veneto newspaper Tuesday that the reservations will likely start towards the end of the summer.
The entry fee, reportedly EUR 10, should start by the end of next year but an official government announcement on both has yet to be made.
A staggering 140,000 people visited Venice on Easter Sunday, with 100,000 more the next day.
“This is the right way forward,” Brugnaro said, “and today many people have realised it”.
Venice, of course, is in long-term crisis as it continues to sink, a problem exacerbated by the high number of visitors.
It was reported that things improved during the pandemic, with some claiming to have spotted dolphins in the canals as a sign that ‘nature was healing’, a claim that was later said to be untrue.