Going, going… gondola! Tourists get dumped into Venice canal after they refused to sit down and stop taking selfies
A group of tourists were thrown into one of Venice’s famous canals after they failed to heed advice to stop taking selfies and board a rickety gondola.
Footage of the aftermath shows several travelers rethinking their choices as they bob in the water next to the capsized boat.
The group moved around the ship, posing for photographs in front of famous landmarks, before a gondolier had to order them to sit down and remain still as they made a careful maneuver under a bridge near Piazza San Marco.
But when they ignored him and continued on their way, the boat capsized and left the entire group stranded, local media reported.
Videos posted on TikTok show tourists clinging to an overturned boat and trying to climb onto another passing boat.
Tourists were photographed in the canal after falling from a boat passing near the bridge.
The tourists were reportedly told to stay put and sit down to keep the boat stable.
Some clung to another passing boat after falling into the canal near St. Mark’s Square.
After the boat capsized, a gondolier jumped into an icy canal to help his passengers escape, The New York Post reported.
The Venezia Non è Disneyland (Venice is not Disneyland) Instagram page, which chronicles tourist exploits around the city, said the group escaped safely and were given “hospitality and warmth” at the nearby La Fenice theater.
The page exists to document the “inappropriate” behavior of 20 million visitors to Venice, a divided city that has been battling overtourism for years.
In 2021 interviewThe page’s founders described the regular problems of tourists swimming in the canals, which they said are “unsafe and dirty, therefore not ideal for sanitary reasons.”
“We love that so many people want to see Venice and we think it is such a beautiful city that everyone should see it. But we do think travelers should get off the beaten path in Venice more often,” they said.
In 2022, the mayor of Venice raised similar concerns when he shared a video of two cheeky tourists riding motorized surfboards on the Grand Canal.
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called them “imbeciles” who ridiculed Venice in a post calling on citizens to help identify and find the surfers.
He offered a free dinner to anyone who could help bring them to justice.
“Venice is NOT Disneyland,” he captioned a video of the couple walking under an arched bridge.
According to La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre, the Australian tourists were eventually caught and fined €1,500 each.
The mayor said he wants them to be held accountable for tarnishing the city’s image.
Venice will now become the first city in the world to charge day-trippers an entry fee in a decisive bid to curb mass tourism, Venice’s tourism chief said in September.
The city will introduce a €5 fee for passing tourists from 2024, although the move will not affect hotel and Airbnb stays, Simone Venturini said.
The fee will be trialled for 30 days next year, primarily around the spring bank holidays and summer weekends when tourist numbers peak.
The scheme aims to find “a new balance between the rights of those who live, study or work in Venice and those who visit the city,” tourism chief Simone Venturini said.
This came in response to a growing backlash against the influx of day-trippers and large cruise ships filling the city.
But critics say the fees miss the point, ignoring a more fundamental problem with Airbnb’s short-term rentals that keep rents high and discourage long-term residents.
Matteo Secchi, president of a Venetian activist group, said the new fee would effectively turn the city into Disneyland.
“By making visitors pay an entrance fee, Venice becomes a museum or a theme park rather than a city where people live, go to the supermarket and take their children to school,” he said.
Above: An overturned gondola with tourists still floating around it in Venice.
Tourists enjoy a gondola ride along the famous canals of Venice, September 3, 2023.
Protesters are protesting against mass tourism and huge cruise ships and calling for changes to the way tourists are treated in the city after a quarantine in Venice, Italy. June 13, 2020
Plans to introduce fees for day tourists were initially discussed in 2019 but were delayed due to the pandemic.
Last year, Venice finally came up with a plan to charge tourists 10 euros to enter the city all year round, but ultimately abandoned the policy, with Venturini citing “resistance”.
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro’s press secretary said Late last year, it was revealed that those plans had been put on hold because the city council had not yet fully approved the new admissions process.
Technical and procedural problems were expected to delay the implementation of the scheme by six months.