Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Venice is an expensive place to live. Rents continuously spiral upward. The price of a
meal might approach double that of other Italian cities. Noise and pollution abrade the res-
idents' spirits. The canals float litter. Many houses have septic tanks for their toilets. Older
living quarters, especially those at water level, flush toilets directly into the canals. Housing
and the city's infrastructure resist modernization. For residents, Venice is a make-do place.
Venice sells much but manufactures very little. Decorative glass, tassels for wall
hangings, and decorative masks are the chief products of Venice. Most everything else for
sale comes from the outside. What does sell is the experience of being in Venice. The city
lives on the tourist trade; some seven million tourists arrive every year. The business of
Venice is the tourist business and little else, so Venice has become a theme park. Many if
not most travelers stay for a single day. Day tourists impose heavy costs on the city's mu-
nicipal services and its infrastructure. Garbage and sewage disposal are part of the costs, as
are feet that wear away floors and arms and hands that rub off precious patina. Above all,
tourists in the summer get thirsty, constantly threatening the supply of drinking water.
Two recent days stand as grim warnings of tourist excess. Several years ago, on a
single day, 60,000 Czechs poured into the city in 1,200 buses. And on July 15, 1999,
200,000 fans crowded into St. Mark's Square for a Pink Floyd Concert. They camped out
in the Square and elsewhere in the city, overwhelmed toilet facilities, climbed pillars for a
better view, and chipped away at the stones of Venice as souvenirs of their visit.
Organizations in Italy and abroad are dedicated to saving Venice to protect its treasures
for future generations. Protecting Venice by limiting day tourists is a proposal much talked
about but not likely to be put into effect. Venice lives on tourist money. But even greater
than the tourist threat is the fact that Venice is “losing altitude”; that is, it is sinking into
its own canals and lagoon as the sea rises. The buildings of Venice are built on pilings, not
directly on solid ground. As the water table is tapped by the city and by mainland industry,
the ground beneath the pilings sinks, and the ground floor of many palaces ride in water.
Worse yet, for more than a hundred years, Adriatic tides have been rising higher and higher,
pushing salty water into the canals and further eroding the brickwork of the palaces along
the Grand Canal. The same holds true for buildings on the 177 lesser canals.
St. Mark's Square, a mere thirty-one inches above sea level, is one of the lowest points
in the city. From 1900 to 1910, the square flooded fewer than ten times a year. By 1980, the
square flooded forty times a year. In the present century, the square floods about sixty times
a year. In some inundations, more than 90 percent of the city floods. Worse, in 1996, flood-
waters rose so high that precious art was lost or damaged. Worse still, comparable floods
are predicted to lie ahead.
Global warming is one explanation for the rising tides. Another is the movement of
tectonic plates that cause sea levels to rise. Whatever the explanation, pedestrians in St.
Mark's Square cope with constant flooding by putting metal tables around and linking them
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