Venice, the city of canals and palaces attracts thousands of tourists everyday. The tourists leave behind quite a lot of litter making the place unsightly. The officials have decided to take steps to maintain the cleanliness and the decorum of ‘drawing room of Europe’.
They have deployed a group of multi-linguistic women nicknamed ‘guardians of the square” who patrol through the Saint Mark’s Square, the Grand Canal and the Doge’s Palace to keep a check on tourists with unacceptable behavior. Discarding leftover food, roaming around bare-chested and having picnics in non-designated places fall into the unacceptable behavior category.
Posters are plastered on bins and bus stops warning the tourists to maintain the decorum of the place and the fines they would have to cough up for unacceptable behavior. Women dressed in special T-shirts hand out leaflets containing the tourist information and informing them about the designated places where they can have their picnics.
The fines range from 25-500 euros and since last August, more than 100 tourists were given 25 euros fines. And for tourists who throw tantrums with patrolling women, the back up police springs into action to control the situation.
People usually say they didn’t know. We advise them that there is a picnic area where they can go, we do not want them to get angry - usually the reaction is positive but there are times when we’ve had to make calls (for back-up).
Says Giovanna, a woman who patrols the place.
Eating in Venice is a costly affair and that’s the reason why many tourists prefer to bring their own food. The Grand Canal starts looking like a beach when men roam around bare-chested tarnishing the city’s image.
While tourists and locals welcome the move, they also suggest that that having more bins around the place would be of great help. So, the next time you are in Venice, make sure that you don’t litter the place and cough up fines.
