Venice: When a pandemic expels visitors, some Venice people allow them to dream of a different city – which many owned them to tourists who packed them out of their stone piazzas, stone alleys and even their apartments.
In a quiet city, breath from 100 tower bells, lapping canal water and Venetian dialect suddenly became the dominant soundtrack.
Cruise ships that trigger thousands of daily trackers and cause damaging waves in the city that sinks, and then prohibited.
But now, Mayor City takes control of the crowd to a new level, encouraging a high-tech solution that alarms even many of them have long campaigned for Venice.
City leaders obtained mobile data from tourists who were not realized and used hundreds of surveillance cameras to monitor visitors and prevent crowding.
Next summer, they plan to install Gates at the main entry point; Visitors who just came for that day had to order ahead and pay the fee to enter.
If too many people want to come, some will be rejected.
The mayor who is conservative and business-friendly, Luigi Brugnaro, and his allies said their goal was to create a more feasible city for the surrounding Venice.
But many residents see plans to monitor, and control, people’s movements as dystopians – and both publicity actions or ways to attract richer tourists, which may be discouraged by many people.
“It’s like stating it once and for all Venice is not a city, but a museum,” said Giorgio Santuzzo, 58, who worked as a photographer and artist in the city.
Many say, high-tech solutions will not bring Venice more authentic back to itself.
Instead, they are afraid of stealing some of the remaining romance.
This system is designed to collect people’s age, gender, country of origin and location before.
“We knew minute by minute, how many people passed and where they left,” Simone Venturini, the top of the city’s tourism, said when he surveyed eight control room screens that show real-time frames from St.
Mark’s Square.
“We have total control over the city.” Initially, surveillance cameras were installed to monitor the crimes and reckless sailors.
But now they doubled as a visitor tracker, a way for officials to see the crowd they want to disband.
Officials said telephone location data would also remind them to prevent the type of crowd that made the junction of the most famous city bridge struggle everyday.
In addition, they tried to find out how many trippers visitors, who spent a little time in Venice.
City leaders dismiss the critics who are worried about the privacy invasion, saying that all telephone data are collected anonymously.