Admission costs money

Venice as a theme park causes riots

The organizers of the protests moved the demonstration to tourist hubs without a permit.(Bild: AFP/MARCO BERTORELLO)

90,000 people came to the Italian lagoon city of Venice on Thursday with just a QR code. Violent riots broke out. The police intervened.

On Thursday, Italy commemorated the liberation from fascist occupation and Nazi rule in 1945. On this national holiday, Venice introduced its new access fee - and this led to violent riots on the very first day. Several hundred activists gathered in the morning to protest against the regulation - and not always peacefully.

Fake codes distributed
They handed out fake QR codes to tourists and tried to persuade travelers coming out of the station not to register or not to have their codes checked by city staff. The situation escalated at 11.30 a.m. when the protesters tried to block streetcar traffic. The activists included members of housing groups as well as environmentalists and opponents of cruise ships. Their criticism: "You can't charge admission to a city. It just turns into a theme park," explained a spokesperson for a residents' initiative.

When the police tried to stop the crowd, clashes broke out.(Bild: AP/Luca Bruno)

The organizers of the protests moved the demonstration to tourist hubs without a permit.(Bild: AFP/MARCO BERTORELLO)

A total of 7266 paying day tourists flocked to the city on Thursday, each of whom had to pay an entrance fee of five euros. This corresponds to revenue of 36,330 euros. In addition, there were 30,300 visitors who received a QR code included with their hotel or vacation apartment booking in the city. This was also given to the 9450 residents of Venice who wanted to pass through the checkpoints in the lagoon on April 25 and had also registered beforehand, as well as 1363 private guests of residents. There were also 15,000 non-residents working in hotels, museums, offices, restaurants and stores, as well as around 11,000 students who also registered on cda.ve.it.

Mayor: "Venice is not a closed city"
They were controlled by a total of 120 employees, who were on standby at all important access points in the city. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro emphasized on site: "Venice is not a closed city. We do not exclude anyone." It was still possible to register after arrival at signposted counters and pay five euros, just like at 30,000 tobacco and newspaper stands throughout Italy. By the evening, the number of visitors had risen to almost 90,000.