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WATCH: Venice mayor furious as two waterski down Grand Canal

Visitors and local residents watched in amazement as two people waterskied between boats along the Grand Canal in Venice on Wednesday.

Published: 17 August 2022 17:11 CEST
WATCH: Venice mayor furious as two waterski down Grand Canal
The Grand Canal in Venice was the scene of the latest episode of visitors behaving badly with a jet-ski ride on Wednesday. File photo: Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, reacted angrily after video footage of the two waterskiers weaving alongside gondolas and vaporetti was widely shared on social media.

He called the pair “arrogant imbeciles” and offered to “buy dinner” for anyone who could identify them.

“Here are two arrogant imbeciles making a mockery of the city,” Brugnaro said in a tweet resharing one of the videos.

“I ask everyone to help us to identify them to punish them,” he said, calling for mayors to be given “more powers” to ensure “public safety”.

“I’ll offer a dinner to the person who identifies them,” he added.

“Dumb and dumber,” commented one Venice resident on Twitter, while another user said: “Venice is not a playground”.

City police were reportedly investigating on Wednesday afternoon.

Venice police regularly hand out large fines and even ban people from the city centre under numerous rules on ‘decorum’, introduced following countless episodes of visitors causing damage or upsetting residents.

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TOURISM

Italy and EU reach deal on beach club concessions

Italy and the European Union on Thursday settled a long-running standoff over private beach club concessions, even though Brussels said it will not halt legal proceedings until the deal is implemented.

Published: 5 September 2024 16:00 CEST
Italy and EU reach deal on beach club concessions

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet has approved a new law to resolve a range of EU infringement procedures against Italy.

They included one launched in 2020 over Rome’s failure to open up beach operators to competition.

“The cooperation between Rome and Brussels has made it possible to find a balance between the need to open the concessions market and the opportunity to protect the legitimate expectations of current concession holders,” Meloni’s office said in statement.

This had allowed both sides “to conclude a long-standing and complex issue of particular importance for our nation”.

Private beach operators provide sun loungers and umbrellas, toilets and showers, restaurants and bars – services many Italians enjoy.

But they can be costly and squeeze out those who cannot or will not pay. And in some areas, such as Rimini on the Adriatic coast, private concessions swallow up 90 percent of beaches.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What’s behind the battle for Italy’s beach clubs?

The EU has been warning Italy for two decades that it had to introduce more competition in the system, where concessions are renewed automatically and often passed down from one generation to the next.

Successive Rome governments ignored the complaints, repeatedly extending the validity of the existing concessions – as Meloni did after taking office.

Under the new plan, Italy will extend the rights of existing operators until September 2027, but require tenders to be opened by June that year at the latest.

The concessions will last between five and 20 years, giving new operators time to recoup their investments.

Lea Zuber, European Commission spokeswoman for competition issues, said on Thursday that Meloni’s government had taken “a major step in the right direction.

“We are hoping that the rules will be brought in conformity as soon as possible, and that we can close the infringement procedure as soon as possible. For now it remains open,” she told reporters.

Critics of the current system say the state has allowed private interests to profit from a public resource belonging to everyone, while paying the state a pittance in exchange.

Some estimates show the state receiving €115 million a year for concessions from an industry worth €15 billion.

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