For about a month now, Venice has been charging an entrance fee for day visitors. Donna Leon is very skeptical about this measure.
Bestselling author and Venice expert Donna Leon (81) is not very keen on the new system of entry fees on certain days in Venice. The city wants to use it to better control the number of tourists. “Five euros, that will hardly change anything,” Leon told the German Press Agency. “And the authorities don’t want it to work anyway: They don’t want to stop tourism. They want to make money from visitors.”
Leon lived in Venice for 30 years and started her successful series about Commissario Brunetti there. The latest volume is called “Trial by Fire” (publication date: May 29).
In 2007, Leon fled to Switzerland to escape the ever-increasing flow of tourists. Reducing the number of tourists was an impossible task, she said. A higher fee would be unfair. “Should only rich people be able to afford to go there?” she said. Everyone has the same right to admire beauty (like in Venice). If travel destroys that very beauty, nothing can be done about it.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
