PAOLO COSTA: A TICKET TO GET INTO ST MARK’S SQUARE

Problems relating to the presence of tourists in Venice have been being discussed for days in the city and in the national press. ‘Mass tourism’ often out of control which the institutions would like to manage. The proposal of making tourists who want to visit St Mark’s Square pay was made today by the current president of the Venice Port Authority and former mayor Paolo Costa. ‘You want to go into St Mark’s Square?’, says Costa, ‘you have to pay as the entire area is considered a single museum’. This can happen, insists the former mayor of Venice, if there is an obligatory booking system upstream and today’s technology allows this. Anyway, points out Costa, the maximum pressure of numbers that the city can bear is 15,000,000 per year. The debate is open. Photo: Paolo Costa