• As always at this time of year, the flow of tourists begins (thanks god!) to shrink and Venice regains, at least for some time, a less chaotic and noisy appearance. Venetians regain possession of their city starting again to go to bars, restaurants and other public places that they carefully avoided in the last months.
And, as soon as locals gather for a glass of prosecco or a "spritz", the controversy over tourism in the city takes place harshly.
While the vast majority of those who are making their income out of visitors (hoteliers, bar and restaurant owners, gondoliers, and all business owners) strongly support the idea that there's no other chance for Venice but to rely on tourists, the few people still living in town but not depending on tourism harshly rebound that this huge mass of people is irreparably damaging the city.
Obviously, they are two sides of the same coin and, as always, there is some truth in both views; but maybe, locals should also ask themselves whether in the past they have done all that was possible to offer to Venice a different fate from what now seems sorrowfully inevitable.
