Unesco recommends adding Venice to endangered list

Venice should beryllium added to a database of satellite practice sites successful danger, the UN's taste bureau has said.

The iconic Italian metropolis is astatine hazard of "irreversible" harm from overwhelming tourism, overdevelopment and rising oversea levels owed to clime change, according to a study from Unesco.

The bureau aims to promote the amended preservation of the tract for future.

A spokesperson for the Venice municipality said they volition "carefully read" the proposal, Reuters reports.

They added it volition past beryllium discussed with the Italian government.

Venice is known arsenic "La Serenissima", which translates to "very serene" - but that nickname nary longer fits.

The Unesco study blames the Italian authorities for a "lack of strategical vision" to lick the problems faced by 1 of Italy's astir picturesque cities.

It is simply a stroke for authorities, who are accused of failing to support the historical metropolis and surrounding lagoon.

But 1 of Venice's erstwhile mayors has accused the planetary practice bureau of being "one of the astir costly and useless bodies connected the look of the earth".

Massimo Cacciari said Unesco passes "judgement without knowledge" and "give opinions near and right, which we would bash champion to disregard".

"They don't springiness america immoderate backing to marque changes, each they bash is criticise… As if Venice needed Unesco to beryllium a satellite practice site! We request much enactment and less words."

The inclusion of Venice successful the information database had already been projected by Unesco 2 years ago, but it was averted astatine the past infinitesimal owed to immoderate exigency measures adopted by the Italian government.

In particular, 1 of those measures was the determination to prohibition ample ships - specified arsenic cruise ships - successful the San Marco Canal, arsenic good arsenic the committedness to motorboat an ambitious conservation program for the city.

The prohibition connected ample ships is being enforced - adjacent though Unesco says it should beryllium extended to different models of boats which are precise polluting.

But the program to prevention Venice was ne'er implemented, and has remained a mirage.

According to Italian paper la Repubblica, Unesco experts person written respective letters to the Italian authorities asking for updates and a timetable. The answers they received were deemed insufficient.

The Unesco report, seen by la Repubblica, says authorities dealing with the exigency successful the metropolis deficiency a strategy to code the menace of clime change.

A warming satellite is having a damaging interaction by causing oversea levels to rise, truthful Venice - which is surrounded by h2o - is precise susceptible to flooding.

On apical of this, astir 28 cardinal tourists sojourn Venice each year. This leads to much and much municipality enlargement projects, which successful crook damages the city, according to Unesco.

Among different things, Unesco believes that high-rise buildings tin "have a important antagonistic ocular impact" connected the metropolis and they should beryllium built acold from the metropolis centre.

Venice is considered an undisputed gem by Italians.

On apical of being fixed a nickname for its serenity, it is successful crook known arsenic "the metropolis of love", "la domitante" (the dominant), and the "queen of the Adriatic".