Entrance costs money – Venice as a theme park causes riots

On Thursday, Italy commemorated its liberation from fascist occupation and Nazi rule in 1945. On this national holiday, Venice introduced its new entrance fee – and that’s exactly what led to violent riots on the first day. A few hundred activists gathered early in the morning to protest the regulations – and not always peacefully.

Fake codes spread
They handed out fake QR codes to tourists and tried to convince travelers leaving the train station not to register or have their codes checked by city staff. The situation escalated at 11:30 am when the demonstrators tried to block tram traffic. The activists included members of housing groups as well as environmentalists and opponents of cruise ships. Her criticism: “You cannot charge an entrance fee in a city. “So it will simply be a theme park,” explains a spokesperson for a residents’ initiative.

A total of 7,266 paying day tourists flocked to the city on Thursday, each of whom had to pay five euros entrance fee. This corresponds to an income of 36,330 euros. There were also 30,300 visitors who received a QR code with their hotel or holiday apartment booking in the city. The 9,450 residents of Venice who wanted to pass through the checkpoints in the lagoon on April 25 and had registered in advance, and 1,363 private guests of residents, also received it. There were also 15,000 non-residents working in hotels, museums, offices, restaurants and shops, as well as approximately 11,000 students who also registered on cda.ve.it.

Mayor: ‘Venice is not a closed city’
They were monitored by a total of 120 staff who were available at all major access points in the city. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro emphasized on the spot: “Venice is not a closed city. We are not excluding anyone.” People could even register after arrival at signposted counters and at 30,000 tobacco and newspaper kiosks across Italy and pay five euros. By the evening the number of visitors had risen to almost 90,000.