The bad news for those who wanted to include Venice in the list of cities for the cruise: the Italian authorities plan to close the Venice lagoon for cruise ships, offering companies an alternative route.
In 2015, huge cruise liners will be prohibited from entering the historic center of the Venetian lagoon in connection with a new bill by the Italian authorities, which are trying to solve the problem of water pollution at the national level.
Not so long ago, an alternative route plan submitted to Parliament for consideration bypassing the center of Venice has already caused dissatisfaction with travel companies, whose ships currently pass just a kilometer from the main square of San Marco, from where simply stunning views of one of the most beautiful Italian cities.
Last year, representatives of the main port of Venice proposed to ban entry into the lagoon for ships with a capacity of more than 96 thousand tons, but their plan was never adopted. Not so long ago, many celebrities signed a petition calling for the exclusion of the city center on the water from the route of cruise ships. According to the new bill, already from 2015, huge cruise liners will not be visible in the basin of St. Mark's Square and in the Giudecca Canal. The innovation will affect both large vessels, and liners of small sizes.
Several Italian ministers, including the country's head of transport, Maurizio Lupi, supported the new plan during a meeting with representatives of Venetian ports, as well as local authorities on Friday.
“It seems to me that our decision to remove the airliners from the canals of Venice is an excellent and thoughtful step that will help preserve the cultural heritage of the city and also have a beneficial effect on its economy,” said Lupi. As an alternative route, the authorities suggested that the vessels follow the Canal of Contorta Sant'Angelo. During the meeting, the Italian Minister of Transport also demanded that the local authorities provide a detailed forecast of the new plan.
Meanwhile, the organization No Big Ships condemned the bill, explaining this by the fact that it does not imply the complete exclusion from the center of Venice of all airliners, and not just the largest of them.
It is worth noting that Venice does not currently have a mayor. The previous head of the city on the water, Giorgio Orsoni, was forced to resign after he became embroiled in a corruption scandal.
For the first time, the inhabitants of Venice were seriously concerned about the state of the environment of their city in January 2012, a month after the tragedy of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which crashed off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio. In addition to the risk of collision with other liners, large vessels are also unwanted guests in the Venetian lagoon due to the numerous emissions of fuel waste and vibrations, which have an extremely negative effect on the medieval buildings of the city.
