Althouse: "Ludovico Mazzarolli, a constitutional expert, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that a €50 ticket would exclude visitors unable to pay and violate the Italian constitution’s insistence on free circulation within Italy."

June 20, 2026

"Ludovico Mazzarolli, a constitutional expert, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that a €50 ticket would exclude visitors unable to pay and violate the Italian constitution’s insistence on free circulation within Italy."

From "Venice mayor faces backlash over ‘barbarous’ entry fee increase/Plans to curb overtourism in the lagoon city by increasing day tickets to €50 face opposition after lower prices failed to change visitor behaviour" (London Times).

33 comments:

Original Mike said...: Of course nominal fees aren't going to change behavior. Duh.
I doubt €50 will do it for international tourists. They paid thousands of dollars to get there.; 6/20/26, 10:15 AM
Christopher B said...: I'll wager there are plenty of places people can't circulate freely in Italy.; 6/20/26, 10:24 AM
bagoh20 said...: Maybe it's a translation issue, but I don't think "barbarous" is appropriate for something just because it's a little expensive.; 6/20/26, 10:38 AM
Aggie said...: It's a First World problem, and it's an import. How ironic.; 6/20/26, 10:39 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: The thing that ruined Venice for me wasn't the tourists but all the algae.; 6/20/26, 11:13 AM
narciso said...: Is that gondola fee?; 6/20/26, 11:14 AM
Original Mike said...: Leftists are never willing to do what it takes to accomplish a goal. It's only intentions that matter.; 6/20/26, 11:20 AM
Steve said...: Is that for both citizens and non-citizens? I suspect that the majority of he over-tourism is due to non-Italians going to Venice.; 6/20/26, 11:37 AM
Lazarus said...: They should do what Lascaux and Altamira did with their caves and build a replica Venice down the coast. Maybe Disney could help. Or better yet, Legoland.; 6/20/26, 11:40 AM
Leora said...: It's likely that people paying thousands for a cruise can afford the 50 Euro fee. They need to ban the cruise ships and restrict buses and planes.; 6/20/26, 11:57 AM
bagoh20 said...: Just ban the use of deodorant by the gondoliers, or is that already voluntary?; 6/20/26, 12:01 PM
narciso said...: Just wait for the water demon; 6/20/26, 12:02 PM
narciso said...: https://x.com/Not_the_Bee/status/2068339335984824693; 6/20/26, 12:13 PM
Leland said...: For 50 euros, you can visit Venice, but for $30, you can visit Obama’s library. Choose wisely.; 6/20/26, 12:24 PM
Enigma said...: The train ride may cost $100 or $200 per rider (depending on starting point, speed, and seating class). The hotel room may cost $200 to $500 per night. The tourist restaurants charge $20 to $50 for trashy tourist meals. Cocktails or coffee cost $10+. Admission to each attraction costs $10 to $30 per person. They nickel-and-dime for access to each room in the Saint Mark's Basilica.

Another €50 charge is but a small speed bump. Many years ago even the Disney theme parks shifted from 'fair prices' to once-in-a-lifetime soak-the-bucket-list-suckers prices too.; 6/20/26, 12:31 PM
Levi Starks said...: The "fee" is supposed to do exactly that, exclude the lower class. If your chosen profession is some type of grift then you'll have to take in 50 euros just to break even.; 6/20/26, 12:54 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Ludovico Mazzarolli is from Padua, 30 minutes from Venice by train. By going after day-trippers, the entry fee would fall disproportionately on Italians from relatively nearby cities and towns.

Mazzarolli described the proposed fee as “barbarous, uncivil, and in my opinion anti-constitutional.”; 6/20/26, 1:19 PM
tommyesq said...: So Venice wants to impose a tax to keep people out, while Canada and California want a tax to keep people in. Kinda like how East Germany built a wall to keep people from leaving.; 6/20/26, 1:28 PM
Spiros said...: Here, in the United States, our freedom of movement is guaranteed by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Constitution. This is Clarence Thomas' thing.; 6/20/26, 1:53 PM
rehajm said...: It’s the growth of affluence.; 6/20/26, 2:27 PM
Josephbleau said...: I’ve heard all about the marvels of Italy since I was 10 years old, I’ve had enough. I would rather just remember the cute movies and leave reality to others.; 6/20/26, 2:38 PM
Josephbleau said...: When you have little a couple has fun poking around the edges and seeing what you can see. When you have money, it’s just another ticket to a show.; 6/20/26, 2:40 PM
Josephbleau said...: “In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.”; 6/20/26, 2:46 PM
mezzrow said...: We all have canals, piazzas, cathedrals and museums where we live. When did you visit them? Why Venice? Why Disney? Why Paris? Why Vegas, for that matter?
How are they gonna keep out the riff raff? An eternal question.; 6/20/26, 3:12 PM
john mosby said...: So Italy has unintentionally figured out how to make a constantly-gentrifying city.

The USA, on the other hand, has mostly intentionally figured out how to make constantly-deteriorating cities.

The main players in both countries are socialists of one stripe or another (even Meloni and people further to her right espouse a big welfare state - just for Italians). So that can't be the difference.

What's the difference? Geography? Maybe. The relative inaccessibility and small size of the Venetian archipelago make it difficult for any working class or poorer people to live there. The dependence on tourism keeps law enforcement actually enforcing the law.

You don't want to make all the tourists disappear, because there's not really any other industry to support a working class. As in London, the massive size of modern shipping made Venice's tiny canals obsolete - there is a lot of industry on the Veneto mainland, where big ships can load to/from big trucks and trains.

You might be able to turn Venice into a lovely little software and 'maker'-based economy. Highly paid engineers could move into all the palazzi to crank out code or do artisanal small-batch high-tech manufacturing which can be hand-trucked and small-boated from the shop to the mainland, and thence to the customer via DHL or whatever. Still wouldn't do anything for the industrial-age workers, but what is, these days? CC, JSM; 6/20/26, 3:34 PM
Quaestor said...: "The Constitution is not a suicide pact"....unless you're Italian.; 6/20/26, 3:56 PM
Goldenpause said...: Hmmmm. I wonder what the politicians who run Venice are doing with all of the money collected from these 50€ entry fees.; 6/20/26, 4:29 PM
Jaq said...: Is it “barbarous” because it is aimed at barbarians?; 6/20/26, 4:55 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: The problem with Venice is the difficulty of doing proper and necessary maintenance on the buildings lining the canals. No plausible amount of money is going to solve that problem. Somehow the current officialdom is under the illusion that the original builders and residents did not do that, and did not need to.
This is exacerbated because the entire city is sinking, a natural, normal, and inevitable consequence of covering the silt with hardscape, and re-routing the local rivers. (See also: New Orleans & Baton Rouge, LA); 6/20/26, 6:53 PM
Aggie said...: It's politicians making the decisions to collect entry fees. Maintenance is the last thing on their mind, that's a problem for the suckers that own the real estate. The politicians are collecting fees from the fat tourists that come to Venice to enjoy the ambiance of being around thousands of other swarming tourists, straining to glimpse a canal.; 6/20/26, 7:23 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: “Venice mayor faces backlash over ‘barbarous’ entry fee increase”

More evidence that it’s been all downhill since the Roman Empire. The Goths could teach those modern Italians a few things about barbarism.; 6/21/26, 1:05 AM
Enigma said...: Venice went through several phases:

1. Offshore defensive retreat to avoid land-based raiders.
2. Shipping port for Mediterranean import-export businesses (i.e., secure house on top of secure boats).
3. Playboy party zone with costumes, masks, and wild spending on luxury. It was the Las Vegas of its era; they had to ban masks in the churches.
4. Post-land bridge, post-central water, post-cruise ship tourist park. It joined the post-WW2 mass-market travel age; travel isn't a challenge and isn't too costly.

Every city and town in Italy has dozens to thousands of historical sites, and these cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to maintain and secure. Tourists do a lot of stupid selfie and vandalism tricks everywhere.; 6/21/26, 4:18 AM
Johnula said...: Even after all these years, Venice is still sinking...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tepxOAEBIE; 6/21/26, 7:04 PM