"You're welcome, ticket."
"But I just got off the train"
"Yes but you are entering Venice"
This conversation didn't actually happen, at least not in those words, but something similar happened yesterday to tourists arriving at Venice's Santa Lucia station.
A ticket to enter
Since April 25, the Venetian capital has introduced a paid ticket (5 euros) for those arriving in the "ancient city" and major islands from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to spend a day among the calli and campielli, but without sleeping in the lagoon. Those who stay overnight, on the other hand, are exempt, already paying the tourist tax.
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The ticket will be needed a total of 29 times this year, until July 14. On days when a larger influx of visitors is expected, it will serve to avoid the dreaded "hit-and-run tourism," not necessarily to be confused with low-cost tourism. These dates include May 1 and the related bridge.
Those who do not pay
Do not despair: many exemptions are provided.
Those who are residents of the Veneto region and those who are in the city to visit a relative up to the third degree, for work or for a doctor's appointment do not pay but must register on the City of Venice website. The same goes for students and many other categories of people who come to Venice for other reasons and whom we will call the "commuters."
Residents of Venice or those who were born there and reside in the region do not pay or have to register. Along with them are children under 14, people with disabilities and their companions.
How to pay
The ticket can be paid in advance on the City of Venice portal or at tobacco shops. There is also the possibility to do it once you arrive, at the special ticket offices in front of the train station or in Piazzale Roma. Those who pay and those who only register are given a purchase receipt or reservation code.
Penalties
Those who enter without a ticket or are found without a valid code instead risk a penalty of 50 to 300 euros, in addition to the cost of the coupon.
How it went
By lucky coincidence I was invited by friends to a Venetian "bacari tour" on the very first useful day to test the operation of the new entrance system.
Being a resident of Veneto, I did not have to pay but only to register on the website of the City of Venice (by entering personal data) and select my category among the exemptions. Shortly afterwards I received a QR code with which to enter the city.
Upon my arrival in Venice there is the usual hustle and bustle of holidays; it is St. Mark's Day as well as Liberation Day. One can sense an air of novelty, but one can also feel the doubts of those about to enter the city. More than a few wonder why a heritage of all should be charged for, others express puzzlement at the "filing" of those who want to visit Venice even for a few hours.
Down the station stairs are policemen in riot gear, called to control not the influx but a demonstration against the ticket. More than the police, however, are cameras and journalists framing Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro as he enthusiastically explains the ticket's new features.
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Heading then toward the Scalzi Bridge, we find a bit of a line before what should be a turnstile, but is more like the entrance to a playground or an exhibition: a mobile access gate bordered by cordons. It is one of many around the station. Some are for tourists, others for residents and students. Like us, several of us fumble with our phones looking for a ticket. We are stopped by an operator with a yellow bib who scans the code only at the first of us: he trusts that we are one group and lets us go.
From there we forget about the ticket because no 'other bibs ask us for it during our tour. We only remember it in the stretches where there are really too many tourists and we struggle to walk. And in those moments it comes back to mind that there was no cap placed on the entrances along with the ticket. And one might then ask how one expects to combat overtourism in this way.
If the hoped-for effect was to limit the presence of daily tourists, the experiment seems unsuccessful given the 113,000 daily admissions. If, on the other hand, it was a new way for the municipality to make cash - the numbers say that nearly 80,000 euros came in from tickets on April 25 - however, it must be remembered that in the budget the expense of the experiment is more than two million euros, while the total expected gain comes to only 700,000 this year.
What can we say
So what does the introduction of an entrance fee in Venice - the first case of its kind in the Western world - represent?
Personally, it seems like a gimmick that is as simple as it is thought out and that thanks to the publicity generated will probably end up increasing the number of tourists even on days in which it would like to dilute them.
It will certainly bring Venice closer to the dimension of city-museum that many seem to have been predicting for her for some time.
A museum, moreover, that is increasingly under surveillance.
Illustrazione di Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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