THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT VENICE
City brings out worst in tourists — again
It seems like almost every week, there is some new insult that Venetian tourists visit upon its streets and residents. From swimming in fountains to cooking on bridges, several visitors have so raised the ire of locals in recent weeks that they’ve actually been ousted from the city. And now, perhaps, the ultimate insult: a gondolier has been head-butted and punched in the face by a tourist — in an altercation over a selfie.
The tourist, said to be from South America, had reportedly climbed into a gondola — tethered to a canal bank between the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square — in order to take pictures of himself and his family.
When the gondolier protested that the boat was private property and that the man and his family should get out or pay for a ride, the tourist lost his temper.
In video footage captured by onlookers, the gondolier, dressed in the distinctive straw boater and black-and-white striped t-shirt of his trade, can be seen arguing with the tourist. At one point, the tourist knocks the gondolier’s hat off his heat, and the gondolier retrieves it. The man goes on to head-butt and punch the gondolier. The latter keeps his hands behind his back.
The Telegraph reports that the incident was seized on by campaigners as the latest example of bad behaviour by tourists in Venice, where a population of around 53,000 swells with more than 20 million visitors a year.
But there was more to come. Two Czech tourists were later found in the early hours, swimming naked in a canal close to St Mark’s Square. The men reportedly laughed and joked as they told police they had wanted a dip because it was hot. They were charged with offending public decency and fined €3,000 (R49,300) each.
In July, two German backpackers were fined €950 and expelled from Venice for making coffee on a portable stove beneath the Rialto Bridge.
Last month, two Norwegian women were caught swimming in their underwear in the Rio di Cannaregio canal. They were told to leave Venice immediately.