Venice

Stroll through Little Venice, salt-blasted by the waves, and look out to the sunset over the famed windmills

Day-trippers to the fabled canal city of Venice who fail to pay 5 euros ($5.43) to enter the lagoon city's historic center during a time-limited pilot program launching later this month will face fines starting at 10 times the entrance fee, officials said on March 4.

Venice will trial a long-debated ticketing system from spring next year, officials said on Sept. 5, with day-trippers charged five euros to enter the Italian city's historic center in attempt to cut tourist numbers.

Inhabitants of Belgium's cobblestone-and-canal city of Bruges are clear: Summertime tourism has hit capacity.

"It's really reached a red line now," says one, 55-year-old architect Arnout Goegebuer, as he sits inside a cafe, peering out a window across a packed outside terrace.

"We don't need more tourists anymore, it's enough - maybe a little bit less" is needed, he says.

The U.N.'s cultural agency UNESCO on July 31 recommended that Venice be added to its list of world heritage in danger, saying the Italian authorities needed to step up efforts to secure the historic city and its surrounding lagoon.

A stretch of Venice's Grand Canal turned bright green on May 28, prompting police to investigate amid speculation about a stunt by environmentalists.

Gondoliers could be seen punting through the phosphorescent waters, while tourists took photographs of the green area, from the Rialto Bridge up and along part of the Canal.

Venice's Jewish ghetto is considered the first in Europe and one of the first in the world, and a new effort is underway to preserve its 16th-century synagogues for the Jews who have remained and tourists who
pass through.

Venice plans to trial a reservation system for day-trippers, an official said Wednesday, in a bid to ease over-tourism as visitors flock back to the Italian city following the pandemic.

The pay-to-visit scheme will not cap tourist numbers but aims to entice some people to visit during the low season by charging them less.

For centuries the impressive arcades flanking St Mark's Square in Venice have embodied the watery city's elegance, harmony, and architectural significance.

Now, the Renaissance-era palazzo whose galleries span as far as the eye can see on the north side of the square opened to the public for the first time on April 8, following a three-year renovation.

Turkey's Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk has written a letter on behalf of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, one of Italy's most outstanding educational institutions, making an urgent call to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to save Venice from rising sea levels.