Posted on 05/01/2018 7:10:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
THE TOURIST crackdown in Italy is spreading to Capri and Lake Garda after Venice introduced radical measures against holidaymakers.
The Island of Capri wants to follow Venice in bringing in crowd control measures, which saw the installation of check points in some of the most congested parts.
The mayor of the island just off Naples said with two million tourists a year the destination could “explode” from the weight of visitors.
Hotels and B&Bs on the island had already reached 90 percent for the first long weekend of the high season leading the Capri Mayor Gianni De Martino to reconsider how the town manages the flow of tourists.
He said: “The problem is not the turnstiles, but to find a system and a host organisation at the port and at Marina Grande capable of managing the remarkable tourist flows in our territory in an orderly and adequate manner without creating overcrowding.”
Cities in Italy are cracking down on the number of tourists allowed
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The romantic village of Sirmione on Lake Garda has also had a large influx of tourists with long queues at car parks and bus stops.
The holiday boom has been blamed on the popularity of the Oscar-nominated 2017 film “Call Me By Your Name”, which was filmed on the beaches of Sirmione.
Mayor Alessandro Mattinzoli shared his concerns and said he doesn’t rule out using various forms of control to tackle the pressure tourism puts on the village.
He said: “Sustainability is fundamental.”
Lake Garda is looking to restrict the number of tourists
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Over the Sardinia Day holiday this weekend Venice installed metal barriers to divert tourists down less populated alleyways so workers and locals didn’t have to continuously dodge tour groups and visitors with bulky suitcases.
This move brings Venice closer to limiting the number of tourists allowed to enter the lagoon city, which currently sees 25 million visitors a year.
Ahead of the Labour Day bank holiday this week police are prepared to close checkpoints that lead from the Venice railway station towards popular sites if the numbers become overwhelming.
However, checkpoints were immediately removed by protestors after demonstrating against the mass influx of tourists.
They had been installed overnight but furious locals tore them down.
One protestor said: “It's not the mayor who owns the city. It's not the police and not the tourists either. It's the people living in Venice.
“We refuse the idea of having checkpoints to get into the city. We own our city.
"Venice is dying. The mayor putting in the turnstiles is demonstrating that he is giving up. He wants Venice to become a city with no inhabitants."
Protestors tried to rip turnstiles down over the weekend
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Only Venetians would be able to pass through these checkpoints as the mayor Luigi Brugnaro said these new measures are an “experiment”.
He told Corriere della Sera: “The barriers will only be closed if there are large crowds. The aim of them is to break up and divert the flow of tourists.
“We’ll be able to close one part of the city and open up another, controlling the degree of crowding. Venetians have the right to a city that is safe and liveable.”
Yes, which is another reason NOT to go in the hot summer.
The way to make the crowds more manageable is to to raise their prices.
The crowds will thin out according to their wealth....................
Well, Venice smells so it’s easy to stay away.
We’ve been to Italy a few times and my husband and I both agree that they don’t care for tourists. It was a little better in the north, around Lake Como, but we never felt all that comfortable in Italy.
France was a different story. We found the people very friendly and helpful. It was the same in Paris, the small towns and particularly in the south.
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