Starting Sunday August XNUMXst, large cruise ships will no longer be able to sail in the waters of Venice. This was established by a decree law approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, which with this provision puts an end to a controversy that began many years ago.
In particular, the government provision prohibits navigation in the city's seaways defined as "of cultural interest". The restriction affects vessels that exceed some parameters: 25 tons in weight, 180 meters long and 35 meters high, production equal to 0,1% of sulphur. Vessels that do not exceed at least one of these limits (and which are therefore considered sustainable) will be able to continue sailing normally. These are mostly cruise ships that can carry up to 200 passengers.
The larger ones, on the other hand, will be forced to dock within the area of the port of Marghera, entering from the Bocca di Malamocco, a route established in December 2020 by the interministerial committee that dealt with the issue.
The problem is that, at the moment, Marghera lacks the infrastructure to welcome arriving boats and disembark all passengers. This is why the decree allocates 157 million euros to build temporary docks in the industrial area, waiting for the landings outside the lagoon to be ready.
The government has also decided to grant compensation to those who suffer economic damage as a result of this initiative, i.e. the whole world that revolves around the cruise business, from port operators to porterage companies. These are at least two thousand workers who have already been very tried by the block on departures imposed during the pandemic.
The decree law comes just a month after a precise warning from theUnesco, which had threatened to put Venice on the blacklist of sites at risk. With the measure that has just been passed, the government is convinced that it has shelved this danger.
“It is really an important day – commented the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini – it is not an exaggeration to define it historic, because after years of waiting, from August XNUMXst no longer will large ships pass in front of San Marco and the Giudecca canal”.
