POSTCARD FROM VENICE - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 54

prohibitively expensive. Zoning favors the hotel business and international chains rather
than local businesses or local residents. The population of the historic city has dropped
to 59,000 today from 164,000 at its peak. Every year 20-to-24 million visitors descend on
Venice. That means that on any given day, there are always more tourists than Venetians.
If and when the waters again flood Venice, only the tourists will be threatened, he said
with black humor.
“It would be hypocrisy for me to complain about tourism but, yes, tourism is killing
Venice,” he said. Matteo pointed toward the square, rousing us to our feet with descriptions
of the Byzantine and Renaissance roots of the masterworks around us. He holds a doc-
torate in archeology, with a specialty in Islamic architecture, and spent five years on ex-
cavation projects until most of that work disappeared as budgets were cut. Determined to
stay in Venice, he sat for the tour guide examination, passed and became one of only 200
guides wearing the badge of an official guide. (In Rome, he said, the city gives out 3,000
tour guide badges.) We were the beneficiaries of his studies. Guidebooks alone don't be-
gin to give you the sense of place and history that someone like Matteo provides. From
plaza to plaza, he pointed out the Byzantine influence in archways, the Gothic traits in
decorations. What booty came from the Venetians' endless naval victories; which paintings
celebrated divine intervention in those battles. We stopped at a fondaco , a building that
was once a state-owned storage and living space that traced its name to the Arabic word
for “warehouse.” The famous merchants of Venice bought and sold their goods from these
fondacos : the warehouse was on the ground level, offices on the first floor, living quarters
on the second floor and servants' quarters on the top. We passed through twisted, narrow
alleys without seeing another tour group. “Most tourists don't go beyond St. Mark's or the
Rialto Bridge, missing most of the city.”
Matteo's parents are native Venetians who were forced out when the price of living rose
beyond their means. He has gone to great lengths to become an official resident, refusing
to relinquish the city to tourists, especially wealthy foreigners looking for a vacation home.
“Mine is a mission of repopulation with Venetians—it is idealism.”
I thought of those French tourism officials who said their greatest fear was too many
foreigners buying up property until entire villages lost their souls. And I thought of the
British lawmaker who tried to put a hold on more foreigners buying up properties in rural
England. Venice most nearly reflects the real nightmare of those officials. The city has be-
come so popular with foreigners buying up properties, hotels replacing homes, and poorly
regulated tourism, that locals are being forced to abandon the city.
• • •
The three men arrived on time for a 10:30 morning coffee near the Rialto Bridge. Flavio
Gregori, a professor of English at Università Ca' Foscari. Claudio Paggiarin, an architect.