In her article published on Ytali, JoAnn Locktov writes about cruise ship tourism in Venice: The cruise ships account for less than 10% of annual tourists but they claim 100% of our attention. Their presence is so deeply antithetical to everything Venice represents, that we have to wonder if the obliteration of Venice is not the by-product of poor governance but the actual goal.
They said it couldn’t happen. The cruise ships were too big to fail. Escorted by tugs at the bow and stern, traveling at 6 knots, the ships were “safe” to traverse the San Marco basin and the Giudecca canal. And then it did happen, on June 2, when a cruise ship lost control and rammed into the quay. They said that a third tugboat would solve the problem; two at the bow and one at the stern. This extra tug would prevent any more mishaps. However this also was a fantasy. On July 7, a cruise ship took off in a storm with three tugboats guiding it, veered off course and narrowly missed the fondamenta in front of the Giardini. [Read the complete article on Ytali here and click here for the Italian version: #nograndinavi: lettera aperta di una “foresta” che ama Venezia]