The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

airport and Mestre. Apologists for the metro project insist that it will enable those
of the city’s inhabitants who work on the mainland to get quickly to their desks
and back home again, and will lead to a reduction in vaporetto traffic on the Canal
Grande, a major cause of structural damage to canalside buildings. Its opponents,
led by the conservation group Italia Nostra, argue that the metro will increase the
tourist deluge of Venice ( just as the creation of the rail bridge did) and undermine
the delicate substructures of the city’s buildings. What’s more, they say, the
enthusiasm of the politicians for the train plan probably has a lot to do with the
vast sums (c. e150 million) set aside for its development, some of which would
doubtless percolate into various private bank accounts. Nonetheless, the current
left-of-centre mayor of Venice, Paolo Costa, has given his support to the plan,
having been persuaded that a swift transport link to the terra firma might reverse
the depopulation of the historic centre.
There are plans to deal with the tourism problem by building a massive coach
park on the mainland, and it’s been proposed that the Arsenale – the projected
location for one of the central metro stations – might become a sort of processing
centre for tourists, in which the daily inundation will be briefed on the city’s
attractions (and allocated accommodation if necessary) before being sent on their
way. There’s even been talk of Venice as a Winter Olympics host, with the events
being staged up in the Dolomites at Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the Games were
held back in 1956 – though it’s not clear quite how Venice would gain from its
involvement in an event that doesn’t exactly ignite global interest.
Though too many of Venice’s politicians seem enamoured of such high-profile
schemes, more modest and sensible ideas do occasionally emerge. Some have proposed
that efforts should be concentrated on furthering the city’s reputation for crafts and
restoration work – a good idea, but one that received a setback when the European
Centre for the Training of Craftspeople was not permitted to extend its occupancy of
the island of San Servolo. Others see the Internet and global information technologies
as offering an opportunity for Venice to remake itself economically. One person
who has championed this notion, and consistently propounded a clear vision of how
Venice might find a role for itself in the twenty-first century, is Massimo Cacciari,
mayor of the city from 1993 to 2000. Taking time out from his career as professor of
philosophy at the University of Venice, Cacciari rapidly became a hugely respected
politician, both for his energetic commitment and his incorruptibility – when Gianni
de Michelis invited him to join his socialist party, Cacciari fended him off with the
words “No thanks, I already come from a wealthy family”. As he sees it, Venice’s best
hope lies in its being classified as an area of special economic need by the European
Union, which would give it access to funds for major infrastructure repairs and
improvements, such as the laying of fibre-optic cables in tandem with the dredging
of canals. To complement this strategy, hi-tech companies could also be given tax
incentives to open offices in Venice, a location which has plenty of very desirable and
unoccupied real estate to offer potential investors.
In an attempt to tackle the enduring problem of depopulation, Cacciari tried to
get the municipality and conservation groups to apply themselves to the restoration
of old houses rather than old churches and other such monuments, so that the
historic centre could provide housing at prices comparable with those in Mestre. As
Cacciari pointed out, no project for Venice’s future has any chance of succeeding
if there are no young Venetians living there. In the last decade or so there has been
a notable increase in the number of new housing projects in the historic centre – a
stroll around La Giudecca, for example, will reveal numerous signs of regeneration.
The population continues to decline rapidly, however, and there’s little sign of the
city creating new economic foundations for itself, though it’s possible that a plan to
lay fibre-optic cables throughout the city might go some way to realizing Cacciari’s
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A brief history of Venice
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