No entry into Venice: Addio, cruise ships!

For years, critics have been complaining of immense damage caused by large cruise ships in Venice – both ecologically and culturally. Now the government in Rome has decided to ban entry into the lagoon city.

The Italian government has decided to ban large cruise ships from entering the Venice lagoon. Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini announced the decision after a cabinet meeting. The government sees this as an important step in protecting the Venetian lagoon. The ban will apply from August 1st.

The measures of the Council of Ministers around Prime Minister Mario Draghi followed after experts from the UN cultural organization Unesco suggested a few weeks ago that Venice should be placed on a negative list for endangered world heritage. The Unesco justified the project among other things with the cruise ships in Venice.

Sustainable ships still allowed

The ban applies to cruise ships with more than 25,000 gross register tons or a length of more than 180 meters and a height of more than 35 meters. Even vessels that exceed certain emission standards can no longer drive through the lagoon of the world heritage city.

Ships that are considered sustainable or did not fall under the criteria for the ban are allowed to continue to pass the lagoon, it said. It is about cruise ships with a size of around 200 passengers.

One million tourists a year

Before the corona pandemic, millions of visitors flocked to the lagoon city on the cruise ships every year. It was not until the beginning of June that a cruise ship from Venice docked again after a good one and a half years of forced Corona break.

For years, locals and activists have been protesting against the huge ships in the architecturally sensitive city in northeast Italy. Waves caused by the huge ships damage the foundations of the lagoon city of Venice, a world heritage site, and threaten the sensitive ecological balance in the lagoon. The ships that travel extremely close along the coast also pose a threat to other ships.

In early June, international artists such as Mick Jagger, Wes Anderson and Tilda Swinton wrote an open letter to Draghi and Italian President Sergio Mattarella to ban cruise ships in Venice completely. In the letter, they also called for better management of tourist flows, the protection of the lagoon’s ecosystem and the fight against property speculation in order to preserve “the physical integrity, but also the cultural identity” of the city.