Venetians are assaulted on a daily
basis by cruise ships, tourists, pigeons and flooding caused by high tides. Now
they have declared war on noisy suitcases on wheels.
Venice council will soon introduce a
ban on luggage equipped with hard rubber wheels, forcing the city's 27 million
annual visitors to instead use suitcases that roll on air-filled, softer wheels
that make less noise.
The authorities are concerned about
"growing noise pollution" caused not only by tourists using wheeled
luggage, but local businesses wheeling goods around on trolleys, the council
said in a statement.
The daily noise of wheeled suitcases
is giving Venetians "serious discomfort" and also causing the
"progressive deterioration" of centuries old marble steps and foot
bridges, it added.
The council, which is under special
administration after a corruption scandal earlier this year forced the
resignation of the mayor, is planning to introduce the ban next May.
After that, anyone with a noisy,
hard-wheeled suitcase will have to pay a fine of up to 500 euros.
For a city with so many problems –
rising waters caused by global warming, an exodus of locals because of high
rents and property prices, and a daily invasion of 60,000 tourists – the issue
of noisy luggage may seem trivial.
"Is that true? That's
crazy," a French tourist told Il Gazzettino, a local newspaper, when told
that his suitcase on wheels will be banned within a few months.
A young Italian woman pulling her
suitcase along the banks of the Grand Canal said: "It seems to me to be a stupid
idea."
But the council insists that the issue
is a real one and that local residents living near hotels and bed and breakfasts
dread the moment when groups of tourists arrive and leave, dragging their heavy
loads over the city.
The council admits that the new law
will be hard to enforce, with thousands of tourists arriving by train, plane
and boat every day.
To make matters worse, the vast
majority of suitcases sold around the world have wheels made of hard resin or
plastic. Anyway, Venice authorities hope that a firm will spy an opportunity to
produce a new line of Venice-friendly suitcases with pneumatic wheels.
"The law won't come into effect
until May, so hopefully by then one or two companies might start producing
suitcases with air-filled wheels," said Maurizio Dorigo, the council's
planning director. “The new, hushed suitcases will benefit not only Venice but
the historic centers of many Italian cities. The historical centres of lots of
other places have the same problems as us – Rome, Florence, Siena. There must
be a way for tourists to wheel around their luggage without making that crazy
noise."
edited from The Daily Mail and The Telegraph
