Vita gazette: According to the UN agency, the city risks “irreversible damage” due to a series of problems: global warming and the abnormal influx of tourists.

The Serenissima, one of the spearheads of Italian tourism, among the world’s most visited and loved cities, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, is in danger and risks “irreversible damage”.

The United Nations cultural agency has recommended that the lagoon city be placed on its world heritage list in danger. It is calling on Italian authorities to step up efforts to protect it.

Experts from the World Heritage Committee fear “irreversible damage” from “the effects of continuous deterioration due to human intervention, including continuous urban development, the impacts of climate change and mass tourism”. The countdown has begun, and there is no more time to lose. Venice must be saved and immediately included in the “world heritage in danger” list.

And so from Paris, the headquarters of UNESCO came the recommendation to include the lagoon city in the list of world heritage in danger, together with the request, addressed to the Italian authorities, to “increase efforts to protect it”.

“Save Venice”

The alarm, launched by Unesco, the United Nations agency for culture, translates into an appeal to the Italian government: to make more and more efforts because the city risks irreversible degradation. A series of well-known problems jeopardise the survival of the Lagoon: the rising sea level, the uncontrolled tourist flows, the heavy maritime traffic, despite the bans for the most impressive cruise ships, and finally, the planned construction of skyscrapers on the outskirts of the city that will negatively impact the skyline profile.

After the disastrous 2019, the black year of Venice due to the tides, when the high water reached record levels of over 180 centimetres, causing hundreds of millions of euros in damages, the Mose was implemented, the protection system that uses mobile barriers all entrance to the lagoon, it was supposed to be a miraculous solution but even then, climate experts predicted it would be a short-term fix.

In 2021 they had already recommended inscription on the list of heritage in danger. Without waiting, the Italian authorities announced the ban on access to the lagoon for larger cruise ships and said that for the rest, they would follow the measures.

Two years later, UNESCO considered the work on Venice insufficient with its report and asked that the city be saved.

The recommendation is to be voted on in September.

The recommendation must be voted on by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in September, which will meet in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). But the fact that the alarm comes on the eve of the great exodus in August requires an urgent reflection on the future of Venice and on its natural ability to resist extraordinary climatic and environmental pressures in the long term.