Italy has banned large cruise ships from navigating the canals of Venice | Preserve environmental, landscape and cultural integrity

the Italian government officially announced on Tuesday that from August 1, large cruise ships will be prohibited from navigating the canals of Venice. Prime Minister Mario Draghi celebrated the move as the arrival of “an important step in the preservation of the lagoon“, which had suffered the passage of these huge tourist boats for decades.

As specified by the Italian authorities in a press release, the vessels over 25,000 tonnes gross that exceeds 180 meters long and 35 meters high Yes whose emissions contain more than 0.1% sulfurThey will not be able to enter the basin, the San Marcos canal or the Giudecca canal.

These ships will have to moor in the industrial port of Marghera, within the lagoon, where the construction of an infrastructure to accommodate them is planned. Smaller cruise ships (around 200 passengers), on the other hand, may continue to disembark in the heart of the city.

Although defenders of heritage and the environment have denounced for years the damage these ships have caused to the fragile ecosystem of the lagoon and to the foundations of the historic city center, the debate returned to center stage last month, with the return of cruise ships after a year of pandemic, period during which the Venetians were able to enjoy greater tranquility and better air quality.

Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini welcomed the news and said it was a “necessary step to protect the environmental, scenic, artistic and cultural integrity of Venice”.

In addition, in this way, it will be possible to avoid “the concrete risk that the city is inscribed on a list of endangered heritage”, explained the Italian Minister of Culture and Heritage, Dario Franceschini.

As the official recalled, the consultative bodies of Unesco proposed the inclusion of Venice on this list at the end of June. The World Heritage Committee is expected to make a decision on the matter between July 16 and 31, at its meeting in China.