Venice will soon become the first city in the world to charge visitors to enter.
There are some places in the world you just have to see to believe, and Venice is near the top of the list. Its incredible architecture coupled with its precarious placement in the Laguna di Venezia make it a truly one-of-a-kind location — which is also part of a problem. Today, Venice is a victim of a phenomenon known as “overtourism,” where interested travelers overwhelm a location or populace. In the case of Venice, some 30 million tourists arrive at the city every year — sometimes staying just for the day — but the local population numbers only around a quarter million. To combat this, Venice’s municipal authorities announced a controversial plan: a €5 entry fee for day-trippers entering the city.
Although this would make Venice the first city in the world to charge an entry fee, overtourism has caused considerable damage to Venice — a city that also desperately needs to adapt to the growing threat of climate change. In 2021, Venice banned cruise ships from its city center due to extensive damage to the surrounding area, and UNESCO has previously threatened to list Venice as “at risk” due to poor preservation.
Starting in the spring of 2024, the entry fee will affect day-trippers over the age of 14 who are arriving at peak times of the year and are not staying in the city at night. The city’s councilor of tourism said the fee aims to “find a new balance between the rights of those who live, work, and study in Venice, and those who visit the city,” noting that Venice was “setting [itself] up as global frontrunners.” It remains to be seen if other victims of overtourism will join the race.
How did early Venetians build an entire city on a lagoon? Carefully, and with some 11 million wooden piles (also called poles). The muddy lagoon that Venice calls home is incredibly soft ground incapable of supporting the weight of your average human, let alone the stone architectural wonders that fill the city. To fix this, Venetians forced millions of wooden piles made of oak, larch, and alder (which are known for being water resistant) into the mud. Packed tightly together, these wood piles had no access to air, which kept the wood from rotting, and the large amounts of silt and soil sped up the petrification process, turning the wood into something more akin to stone. Yet these piles don’t quite support the weight of Venice directly; instead, they compact the mud by forcing out water and making the ground stronger. Atop the piles, early Venetians placed wooden planks, limestone, and then bricks to support the weight of their beautiful — and immense — buildings.
