Any Opinions About Venice Cruise Ship Protests?

The cruise ship port is not close to the tourist attractions so the tender activity is already in place. Considering the sea level rise along with the slow sinking of Venice seperate from sea level rise, cruise ships moving through navigable passages have little negative impact except for delivering thousands of tourists walking, adding their weight, resource utilization, and vibrations on the surface. Sea level has been rising for the last 10,000 years and the Venice human enhanced island is not immune from the challenges facing any other man made structure built close to and only a few feet above oceans.

Without belaboring the point, it is debatable how much additional damage the ships that actually dock there can cause to what has become a bit of an embarrassment to Italy. How much non-Venetians around the rest of the country actually care is another matter.

FWIW, that old joke has applied to residents of many different countries around the world, but none so factual as Italy. While its a bit of a straw man to go back to the end of WW2, I decided to look it up. There have been approx. 65 DIFFERENT "governments" in Italy since then, and there doesn't appear to be any end in sight. "what the people want" works in a perfect world. It doesn't even reliably work HERE. They rewrote their Constitution a few years back to try to end the turmoil...I don't think they succeeded. Its a shame, since no matter how its sliced, VENICE is massively dependent on tourist $$...at least the residents who can benefit from it are.

How "they" would come together to actual enact legislation on this issue makes my head hurt.

And yes, its kind of nice to have differing views on a sensitive issue affecting cruisers around the world without any angst.

It is a shame that Venice is sinking and that cruise ships are not helping to save the city. I have spent a week there and I want to go back for another week or two in Venice. I'll disagree with Rick Steves that 3 days is enough time in Venice.

I would vote to keep the cruise ships out of the Canals. The ships can port near the airport on the main land and stay out of the canals.

If any of you have not been to Venice I'd suggest going while it is still above the waves.

Wasn't that France?

I'm clicking "Like" for everyone's comment. Glad to have participation.

I disagree with Yankee47's comments. I think the protests will force a vote on this issue and then after that I think the government will listen and abide to the people's vote. In my opinion, I think Ocean Cruise Ship visits to Venice will be coming to an end in the near future.

Perhaps I'm wrong, just an opinion.

Having said all that, I do wonder just how much the mafia has their hands in Italian politics. That of course will change everything.

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I think we can have mature discussions like this without anyone coming around and wanting to end the conversation. We've all mature adults here. Let's hear differing opinions.

Let them eat cannoli ... with some lemoncello or tiramisu

"Let them eat cake!"

Well, differing points of views for sure.

None of the above...anyone who has paid any attention knows that for any 5 Italians there are 7 political parties...protests in Europe are nothing new...and telling them they should hold votes??? Quit listening to big money? Do as the citizens want? you talking about Italy or us? With a just a bit more "planning", Venice could be completely underwater in another 20 years...no need to dock at all...just sail over it in glass bottom gondolas...

Sounds to me like the proper solution would be to fins an alternate port to bring people to Venice or to create a pier structure out from the port to house the cruise ships and shuttle them all in from there. This would create an additional market for tender operators offering more jobs and keep the ships out of the port while at the same time still bringing in those needed tourist dollars.