Vocabulary

 

tour	heritage	frequent (2)
bridge	can’t help	square (2)
give up	overrun	locksmith
guide	dilemma	upholstery
alive	counter-	seek/sought/sought
steer	navigate	troubled waters (2)
survive	conduct	present (3)
district	attention	draw attention
rent	cross (2)	draw/drew/drawn (2)
decline	hot topic	rise/rose/risen
decide	propeller	move away
full of	gradually	seek/sought/sought
local	backdrop	carpenter
wound	onslaught	bookbinder
repair	trade (2)	prosperous
pride	mattress	all that’s left
lagoon	provoke	tourist trap
trip	churn up	pay/paid/paid
pose	flood (2)	cruise ship
cruise	outraged	day-tripper
effect	consider	foundation
vessel	welfare	craftspeople
piston	threaten	fishmonger
clay	subsoil	produce (2)
silt	pile (2)	wash away
palace	charming	initiative (2)
go by	prevent	even more
canal	level (2)	sink/sank/sunk
invest	eat away	rise/rose/risen
bridge	wonder	foundation
port	authority	displacement
fear	ram (2)	terminal (2)
chance	reassure	keep reassuring
fume	resistance	grow/grew/grown
release	exhaust	eventually
air	overrun	on the right course
worth	seek out	corporation
port	trap (2)	operate (2)
radical	strategy	counter (3)
full up	paradox	the time has come
stay	sacrifice	feel/felt/felt
reduce	figure (3)	reasonable

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Transcript

Every time tour guide Paulo Patuzzo crosses the Rialto Bridge, he can’t help but wonder where did his charming city go — the one that’s now overrun with millions of tourists.

How can Venice protect itself from the onslaught of visitors?

He’s sure this piece of world cultural heritage won’t survive as a photo backdrop alone.

Paulo Patuzzo, Tourist Guide: “My love for this city makes me seek out places and people who are keeping Venice alive. Because there are enough people counter-steering, and navigating the city into troubled waters.”

Like most Venetians, Paulo lives from tourism, which presents him with a dilemma: he now conducts special tours to draw attention to the city’s problems, like in his own district, where rents are rising as flats are being used as holiday homes.

More and more Venetians are moving away.

At the bar Paulo frequents, Venice’s decline is a hot topic.

Ettore Silvestri, Upholsterer: “Twenty years ago, the city was full of craftspeople who produced things for the local people: upholsterers, carpenters, locksmiths, bookbinders — they’re all gone!

Today, no one makes mattresses or repairs shoes anymore.

And that’s wounded Venetians’s pride. Is this all that’s left of their once so prosperous trading city?

Paulo shows us the Mercado de Rialto, the old fish and vegetable market, now it’s just a tourist trap. Venice has become a city in which few people actually live.

Paulo Patuzzo, Tourist Guide: “Here there are more tourists taking photos than paying customers. That provokes people, which is why a few fishmongers are considering asking for money to pose for photos in front of this tourist backdrop.”

The cruise ships are also a huge problem. Activist Stefano Micheletti is outraged. Not only do these huge vessels flood the city with day-trippers, they’re also threatening the lagoon city’s very foundations.

Stefano Micheletti, No Big Ships Campaign: “The big ships’ propellers have a piston effect. They churn up all the subsoil, clay and silt from the lagoon are gradually washed into the open sea.”

As a result, Venice, a city built on wooden piles, is slowly sinking — and could eventually be completely underwater.

But Micheletti isn’t giving up: his citizen’s initiative has managed to prevent even more cruise ships from coming into Venice.

Stefano Micheletti, No Big Ships Campaign: “When a ship like that goes by, the water level in the nearby canals sinks by around twenty centimeters and then rises again right afterwards due to the displacement. This hugely powerful force eats away at the foundations of the palaces, churches and bridges.”

But not everyone in Venice is happy about Micheletti’s initiative. The port authorities invested millions of euros in modern cruise terminals. Now due to the success of the protests, only half of them can be used.

Galliano Di Marco, Venice Passenger Terminal Managing Director: “For four years, we’ve been listening to these fears that our ships could even ram into Venice.

I can only keep reassuring people, even with the biggest ships, the chances of that happening are zero.”

So the industry is still fighting to keep the huge ships cruising by St. Mark’s Square. It’s a business worth millions.

But resistance is growing, also due to the exhaust fumes the ships release into the air. More and more Venetians feel their city is not on the right course.

Stefano Micheletti, No Big Ships Campaign: “So far, big construction projects have been decided by the corporations operating the port in the airport. It’s only about growth, ever bigger, ever more.

As for the city’s welfare, there’s no strategy, whatsoever.”

That makes Paulo Patuzzo both angry and sad. Each year, Venice’s fifty-five thousand residents are overrun by thirty-million tourists. Many think the time has come for radical counterstrategies.

Stefano Micheletti, No Big Ships Campaign: : “It’s paradoxical, but the best tourists for Venice is the one who stays at home. We’re more than full up with more than thirty-million visitors a year.”

It’s clear something must be done to reduce the number of visitors to a reasonable figure. But for that to happen, Venetians will need to sacrifice some tourist dollars to save their beloved city.

 

 

 

 

Questions

1. Some Venetians believe there too many tourists in their city. True or false?

2. Is the local Venetian population increasing, decreasing or staying the same?

3. There is a dilemma or paradox for locals. Is this right or wrong? What is their paradox or dilemma?

4. Has Venice always been like this or has it changed over the decades? How has it changed?

5. Do the visitors spend lots of money in Venetian restaurants and shops?

6. What is the other (bigger) “problem” for Venice? Why is it considered a serious problem?

7. Does everyone agree that Venice has serious problems?

8. Is there a solution for Venice?

 

A. I have visited Venice. Yes or no? Have your friends visited Venice?

B. Do all your friends, colleagues and neighbors want to visit Venice?

C. Are there tourist hot-spots in your city or country? Is it very famous? Do many tourists go there?

D. Is tourism good or bad? Is mass tourism entirely positive, mostly good, good and bad, in the middle, so-so, most negative or totally negative?

E. What might happen in the future?

F. Should anything be gone about (mass) tourism? What should people and governments do?