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Government officials in Italy have once again moved to ban large cruise ships from sailing near the city center of Venice, citing the need to "protect the artistic, cultural and environmental heritage" of the ancient city.
On Wednesday, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a decree that would relocate docking sites for large vessels away from Venice’s Grand Canal and the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square). Until those sites are built, vessels over 40,000 tons will be required to berth at Porto Marghera, across the Venetian Lagoon, Reuters reports.
In this 2019 photo, the MSC Magnifica cruise ship is seenleaving in the Venice Lagoon a day after thousands of locals took to the streets in protest. (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)
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Dario Franceschini, Italy’s Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, heralded the decision on Twitter, and also in a statement released Thursday.
"Anyone who has passed through Venice in recent years, an Italian citizen or a citizen of the world, has been shocked to see these ships hundreds of meters long, as high as condominiums, passing in such fragile places as the Giudecca Canal or in front of San Marco," wrote Franceschini, per a translation of the statement. "This is why yesterday's decision by the Council of Ministers to plan and build the final landing of ships outside the Lagoon is very important, as Unesco has long asked Italy."
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Motions to divert cruise ships away from Venice’s city center have been attempted several times over the last decade, most notably after the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012, when 33 people died after the liner ran aground in shallow waters outside Tuscany. That decision was later overturned by a court, Deutsche Welle reported.
Thousands of Venetians are seen protesting the large ships in 2019, alleging that they contributed to historic flooding that wreaked havoc on the ancient city. (Getty)
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Under pressure from residents and local officials, who continued to blame the large ships for contributing to flooding and erosion, similar attempts to ban large cruise vessels were undertaken in 2017 and 2019, the latter after a cruise vessel crashed into a tourist boat, leaving several injured, although none of the bans were properly implemented.
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