Big cruise ships banned from Venice starting next November

(see related) (ANSA) – Rome, November 5 – Government officials in Rome on Tuesday ordered a halt to large cruise ships passing through the Venice lagoon, effective from November 2014, and a limit on smaller cruise vessels effective in January. The order came following a long-awaited meeting Wednesday with Premier Enrico Letta and his ministers, joined by Venice municipal officials and regional authorities over how to implement a law in Venice over banning large ships from passing near Italian shores. The law was enacted nationwide following the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in early 2012, which killed 32 people off the coast of Tuscany, but was suspended in Venice where the cruise industry is key to the local economy. According to the order, trans-Adriatic ferries will also be banned as of January from passing through the Giudecca Canal, the primary passageway for large ships through the Medieval city. Ferries will also be limited from passing in front of St Mark’s Square. As of January, cruise ships weighing over 40,000 tonnes must be reduced to 20% of their current volume in Venetian waters. The outright ban on cruise ships in November 2014 only applies to those over 96,000 tonnes – similar to the Costa Concordia. According to the order, cruise traffic will eventually be rerouted through the Contorta Sant’Angelo Canal, so that any accident would not touch the best-known and most vulnerable parts of the city. Environmentalists warn that the lagoon surrounding Venice, itself a UNESCO heritage site, is at great risk due to its fragile ecosystem.

Other experts warn that the thousand-year-old wooden piles that prop up the city underwater would crumble like toothpicks under the weight of a 114,500-ton cruise ship like the Costa Concordia. In addition, liners ushering tourists into the heart of the city disrupt the extremely fragile foundation of Venice and its medieval monuments by displacing massive amounts of water in the shallow lagoon. Over 650 cruise ships pass through the city annually. The new provisions would tighten daily limits on cruise liners, with no more than five ships over 40,000 tonnes allowed passage, obliging many ships to find alternative docking outside the city itself.