Metal barriers aimed at separating visitors and locals on key routes into Venice are expected to be put to use on 1 May despite protests by locals against the controversial measure
I am standing on Venice’s Bridge of Sighs on a Sunday morning … or at least trying to: a tsunami of tourists is flooding towards the Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square): people wielding umbrellas or gripping plastic pints of Aperol Spritz, bossy tour guides shepherding cruise-ship passengers, backpacking millennials and many others. So far, so typical, except this weekend – a four-day bank holiday that began on Saturday 28 April and runs to Tuesday 1 May – the city, already straining under the weight of mass tourism, is anticipating record visitor numbers.
Even before it started, the local press had dubbed the long weekend a “nightmare”, an “invasion” and a “Bollino Nero” (code black), a term more commonly used by Italians to describe motorway gridlocks.
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Source: Gaurdian
