Travel Reference
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Marco Malafante, tourism professional. The last two are Venetian natives; the professor
is a long-time resident. They agreed to give up a Saturday morning with their families to
explain to me why they were active in 40xVenezia, an organization of mostly young pro-
fessionals in their forties dedicated to reining in the runaway tourism in Venice.
The sun was scorching. We found a café on the canal with umbrellas and ordered
drinks. The men started talking at once, laughing as they interrupted each other.
First, the problem as they saw it: “When our population reaches under 60,000, Venice
stops existing as a living city. We are worried from several points of view. All the prices are
boosted up by tourism. Whenever there is a palace for sale, it's very likely to be bought by
a major hotel corporation. I used to work in a palazzo, now it's been sold by the university
and it will become a hotel,” said Flavio, the English professor.
When they saw their lives in Venice threatened, they created 40xVenezia in November
2007.
Claudio picked up the story. “We felt excluded from the government and the decisions
of the city. Our coming-out was a demonstration ' Venezia non è un albergo '—'Venice is
not a hotel.' ”
Since this is Venice, the demonstration they held the next spring was anything but or-
dinary. At the sound of the noon bells of San Marco nearly 1,000 protesters froze like
statues. When the bells stopped, they all applauded and then rushed behind an enormous
banner that said VENEZIA NON È UN ALBERGO . The police arrived on the scene.
“The children held the banner. The chief of police took it away from them and the
children started crying. And the tourists took pictures,” said Claudio.
The group was protesting a proposed law to further expand the dwellings in the city that
can rent rooms to tourists. Already the city had allowed the number of properties offering
tourist accommodations to rise by 450 percent since 2002. (The city leaders had also gran-
ted permission for double the number of cruise ships to visit Venice.) “ Basta —enough”
they said.
The protesters won; the law didn't pass, but the city still felt imperiled. The next year
another group of protesters—younger and more daring—staged a mock funeral for the
death of Venice. They placed a plywood coffin painted neon pink into a gondola and
floated it down the Grand Canal, again at noon to the sound of the bells of San Marco.
The citizens of Venice were finding their voice.
“We're not opposed to tourism,” said Marco, the tourism professional. “We're opposed
to losing our city to tourism.”
Evidence of that loss is all around.
“Here's an example,” said Flavio, the professor. “A few years ago, I had to dash to my
butcher for meat for dinner and wasn't paying much attention to where I was going. I
entered a shop and realized I had made a mistake. It was a souvenir store selling masks. I
said I was sorry and was about to leave when they said, no, I wasn't mistaken. The butcher
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