07 December 2023 , 17:27
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A group of tourists who ignored advice to stop taking selfies as they cruised on a shaky gondola through Venice’s famous canals soon learnt their lesson when the boat threw them into the dirty water.
The five travellers were warned to be careful whilst they posed for pictures in front of some of the Italian city’s beautiful landmarks. But they reportedly didn’t listen to instructions from the gondolier to sit down as they floated under a bridge near St Mark's Square.
After they capsized, a video shows the group in the canal’s cold water fruitlessly trying to cling onto their upside-down vessel and even eying up a different boat nearby. A clip on TikTok shows them crying out for help and swimming in their drenched clothes as locals came to help.
The tourists were all pulled to safety and taken to the La Fenice theatre to dry off by generous locals, according to the Venice Is Not Disneyland page on Facebook. The page aims to highlight tourists acting inappropriately and says the 20 million annual visitors it attracts is simply too much to manage.
Venice has had problems with tourists in their canals before and this incident follows brazen tourists from Australia riding motorised surfboards through the Grand Canal last year. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called them “imbeciles” and offered to buy dinner for anyone who found out who they were. Both tourists were eventually fined €1,500 each.
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Irresponsible tourism in the city has even reached the point where officials now want to charge tourists coming in for the day an entry fee of €5. The controversial move is set to be trialled next year with a focus on summer weekends and holidays where the number of tourists swells to even more than usual.