Travel
Venice Rethinks Its Future After Rare UNESCO Warning
Cruise ships, mass tourism, and a steady decline in permanent residents are problems the city is aiming to address.
Tourists pass a cafe terrace at the Rialto bridge in Venice on June 5.
Photographer: Giulia Marchi/BloombergVenice, Italy (AP) -- Away from the once-maddening crowds of St. Mark’s Square, tiny Certosa island could be a template for building a sustainable future in Venice as it tries to relaunch its tourism industry without boomeranging back to pre-pandemic day-tripping hordes.
Private investment has converted the forgotten public island just a 15-minute waterbus ride from St. Mark’s Square into a multi-faceted urban park where Venetians and Venice conoscenti can mix, free from the tensions inherent to the lagoon city’s perennial plague of mass tourism.