Comitato No grandi navi Comitato No grandi navi – Laguna bene comune
The other week, water rose over the cafe chairs in Venice’s Piazza San Marco. Even doughty German tourists had to flee.
Until the tide receded four hours later, more than half the city was underwater.
Venice is drowning in a sea of blather, sludge, big boats. Thank sodden bureaucrats, special-interest groups and politicians for doing little to save this wondrous town of bridges, piazzas, palazzos and canals that emerged from the lagoon in medieval times
Anna Somers Cocks has been monitoring Venice for decades as Chief Executive Officer of the Art Newspaper and former chair of the Venice in Peril Fund. She was visiting from Londonto present “Can Venice Be Saved?” as the annual Mellon Lecture of the World Monuments Fund.
We spoke over lunch at Bloomberg’s world headquarters inNew York.
Hoelterhoff: The photos of Cafe Florian in San Marco are shocking: 143 cm (56 inches) — that’s a lot of water.
Somers Cocks: It’s officially a red alert. You can’t see where the pavement ends and canal begins and can end up swimming.
Hoelterhoff: Huge cruise ships, the length of three football pitches, sail past the Piazza San Marco to the port and back. They’re scary: thousands on board, some playing basketball.
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