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Italy’s Authorities to Ban Cruise Ships From Venice

Italy’s Government to Ban Cruise Ships From Venice

Italy announced on Tuesday that it was banning large cruise ships from entering Venice’s waters and was also declaring the city’s lagoon a national monument, in a move to protect a fragile ecosystem from the downsides of mass tourism.

The ban, demanded for decades by both Venice residents and environmentalists, will take effect on Aug. 1.

“The intervention could no longer be delayed,” Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said in a statement.

In recent weeks, as cruise ships returned to Venice after the pause imposed by the pandemic, protesters in the city rallied on small boats and on the waterfront with “No big boats” flags. Last Sunday, they demonstrated during the Group of 20 summit for economic ministers that took place in the city, attracting international media attention.

“My heartbeat is so fast I could be having a heart attack,” said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist and spokesman for the No Big Ship Committee, responding to Tuesday’s announcement. “We have been fighting for 10 years, and now this victory feels almost unbelievable.”

In April, the government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced that it was planning to ban large cruise ships from the San Marco basin, the San Marco canal and the Giudecca canal, but no date for the ban was set. Also, the prohibition was conditioned on the building of a new port where tourists could disembark to visit the city, a project that could take years.

Tuesday’s decision removed that condition, so the ban could be enforced in weeks, not years.

Mr. Franceschini explained that the government had drafted the urgent decree to avoid “the real risk of the city being put on the blacklist of “World Heritage in Danger” sites established by UNESCO, the United Nations culture body.

In 2019, UNESCO warned Venice about the “damage caused by a steady stream of cruise ships.” Before a UNESCO World Heritage Committee beginning later this week that could have seen Venice added to the blacklist, the Italian government approved the decree making Venice’s waterways a national monument, a status usually given to artworks and historical buildings that puts the lagoon under enhanced state protection.

Over the last 10 years, Venice has been caught up in a clash between those representing the economic interests of cruise traffic — which employs thousands of people in the area — and others who want to protect a delicate environment from gigantic boats that disgorge tourists en masse.

The ban applies to ships that are either heavier than 25,000 tons, longer than 180 meters (about 590 feet), taller than 35 meters (about 115 feet), or that employ more than a set amount of fuel in maneuvering. The ban is such that even large yachts could be affected.

The government also decided to give power to the regional port authority to determine how five temporary docks can be built in Marghera, a nearby industrial port, while respecting maritime safety and environmental laws.

The intention to divert the cruise ships to the port of Marghera has raised eyebrows. The port is built for cargo ships and is not nearly as picturesque as the city’s lagoon. Moreover, the port’s channel is not large and deep enough for most cruise ships and would require major construction work.

Among the many projects considered by governments over the years, one envisioned a permanent passenger terminal at the Lido entrance to the lagoon. Activists considered that the best solution for the city and for the cruise industry.

Mr. Draghi’s cabinet also moved on Tuesday to establish compensation for sailing companies that will be affected by the ban and for other businesses connected to the cruise traffic inside the lagoon.

“It is a positive decision and could be the beginning of a new era,” said Francesco Galietti, national director for the Cruise Lines International Association. He added that the association has been asking for the temporary docking sites in Marghera since 2012.

The cruise industry is hoping, Mr. Galietti said, that the new docking sites would be ready in 2022, when tourists are expected to return en masse to cruises. This year, only 20 liners were expected to arrive in Venice.

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Italy’s Vaccine Drive Runs Up In opposition to a Sacred Establishment: Summer time Trip

Italy’s Vaccine Drive Runs Up Against a Sacred Institution: Summer Vacation

ROM – As Dr. Mario Sorlini puts patients in a vaccination center near the badly affected Italian city of Bergamo, explaining a possible complication of the coronavirus vaccine.

The second dose, he tells patients with horrified faces, will fall on a date during the summer vacation.

“‘But then I’ll be in Sardinia,'” he said, saying that some had responded with distress. Others moan about hotel rooms that they have already booked. Some, he said, get up and leave.

For months, Italians have been starving for vaccines that will give them security, freedom from lockdown and a taste of normal life. After initial pitfalls and hurdles, the vaccination campaign is finally accelerating, but it is entering the summer vacation, sacred to many Italians, and fears among officials that a significant number would rather get away than get vaccinated.

“I am sure that after such a tough year many will take the risk of delaying the vaccine,” said Renata Tosi, the mayor of Riccione, a beach town so identified with summer flights that she gave her name a new holiday anthem . This could pose a significant threat next fall, Ms. Tosi wrote in an open letter to the president of the region.

“The second shot blocks holidays,” read a headline in Messaggero Veneto, a newspaper in northeastern Italy, which raised concerns in newspapers, websites and social media accounts across the country.

An estimated 20 million Italians – mostly 40 and 50-year-olds – face the prospect of getting their second shots in mid-July or worse, in the flood of Italian August that draws people from cities to swelling coastal towns.

To avoid a potentially catastrophic summer freeze in the vaccination campaign and more economic troubles, the Italian regions are calling on the government to meet vacationers where they are and offer shots on the beach.

“We want to give tourists who do not come from Veneto the second dose,” Luca Zaia, the president of this region, which also includes Venice, told reporters. “And even foreigners, if they want, we can find a solution for them.” . “He has charged the government with pressure on the government to be more flexible in order to save the tourism season and loosen the rigid regional health system so that Italians in sun and surf regions far from home can be vaccinated.

Others are working on contingency plans. In Lombardy, another region in the north where the former health officer lost his job last year after refusing to recall nurses from the Christmas vacation, his successor has tried to avoid planning second doses in August.

The president of the mountainous region of Piedmont in the north-west has promised flexibility and proposed an agreement with the coastal region of Liguria that should allow their vacationers to exchange second doses.

Italy’s new government, led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, prides itself on pragmatism and is desperate to get the tourism industry going. Mr Draghi recently announced that Italy would lift quarantines and restrictions on vaccinated international tourists, telling them, “It is time to book your vacation in Italy.”

Island paradises like Capri, preferred by many foreigners, have accelerated their vaccination campaigns and are now considered Covid-free. But when it comes to Italians who are still vaccinated during the summer months, the government has tried to strike a balance between being open to innovative ideas and scolding Italians for their spring and summer fever.

Updated

May 20, 2021, 9:17 p.m. ET

“When we do fancy flights and inventions, I’m not there,” said Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, an army general in charge of Italy’s vaccination efforts, on Tuesday, trying to throw cold water on the governors’ plans to vaccinate Italians where to go.

Such a policy would most likely disrupt rigid regional databases and the orderly process that has finally begun to lower deaths and contagions. Italians, the general said, should plan their vacations around the vaccination appointment near their home. “If you go on vacation, you should plan according to your appointment,” he said.

Massimiliano Fedriga, president of the Italian regional conference, also described the idea of ​​vaccinating vacationing Italians as impossible.

“I hope everyone can see that there are millions and billions of tourists arriving in some places,” he told reporters. “And that it is technically impossible.”

He suggested leaving the vacation for a day and then going back.

But that is perhaps easier said than done, and many have complained that the government is responsible for changing reservations and creating confusion. To increase the number of Italians with some protection against the virus, on April 30, Italy allowed the waiting time between the first and second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to be extended from 21 to 42 days. Italians who received the AstraZeneca vaccine have to wait even longer between admissions, with those now receiving the first dose often coinciding the follow-up with the August Abyss.

The result has been a serious dilemma for Italians who have already planned their summer vacation and are weighing lost deposits against losing their vaccination slots.

Even in a normal year, summer holidays in Italy are a serious issue. For a certain, well-heeled section of society, summer plans, often a month away from work, are all they talk about, starting around March.

This year, people have sought vacations with such vengeance that tourism companies are using the term “vengeance trip” to describe how Italians are trying to cope with the gruesome months of lockdown as well. Surfing for vacation homes has become the new doom scrolling.

This week in Italy, Italians talked about how “holidays are sacred” and how the siren call of a vaccination wasn’t strong enough to keep them off the course of Sicily.

The less-at-risk 30- and 20-year-olds in the next category eligible for vaccination are even less likely to stay home during the summer.

Ms Tosi, the mayor of Riccione, said in her letter that she had received many appeals from people who received their first cans in Milan to take their second shots in their coastal city.

“We really want to answer” yes “and show that the country has the flexibility to fight the virus and save the summer.” We have to give citizens the opportunity to end their vaccination prices in vacation spots. “

Dr. Sorlini in Albino near Bergamo said that most of his patients accepted the summer follow-up appointment for the time being, but many asked, “Can I do this on the beach?”

He said he expects at least 10 people a day to give up their August dates for second shots, which means he will struggle not to waste those cans.

Ciro Mautone, 58, a security guard at Camponeschi, a café popular during the Rome holidays, said he selected Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine, which does not require a second shot in order not to partially interrupt a possible vacation.

But he said that after the brutal year that his work was impacted by company closings, he focused on making up for lost income rather than fretting about canceling a vacation.

“I wish I had this problem,” he said.

Emma Bubola and Gaia Pianigiani contributed to the coverage.

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Business

The Pandemic Helped Reverse Italy’s Mind Drain. However Can It Final?

The Pandemic Helped Reverse Italy’s Brain Drain. But Can It Last?

When the engineer Elena Parisi left Italy at the age of 22 to pursue a career Five years ago, in London, she joined the numerous talented Italians who had escaped a sluggish job market and a lack of opportunities at home to find work abroad.

But last year, when the coronavirus pandemic forced employees around the world to work from home, Ms. Parisi, like many of her compatriots, took the opportunity to really return to Italy.

Between the Zoom meetings and her other work for a recycling company in London, she took long walks on the beach near her family’s home in Palermo, Sicily, talking to vendors in the local market about recipes at dawn.

“The quality of life here is a thousand, a thousand times better,” said Ms. Parisi, who is now in Rome.

As with so many things, the virus has a well-known phenomenon – this time Italy’s longstanding brain drain. How much things are changing, and how permanent those changes will be, is a source of debate in the country. But something is clearly different.

According to the European Commission, Italy is one of the European countries, along with Romania and Poland, that send the most workers abroad. And the proportion of Italians living abroad with a university degree is higher than that of the Italian population.

Given the money the country spends on education, Italy’s brain drain costs the country an estimated 14 billion euros (about $ 17 billion) each year, according to Confindustria, Italy’s largest business association.

Italian lawmakers had long tried to win back talented workers with tax breaks, but a bleak job market, high unemployment, baroque bureaucracy, and narrow career opportunities continued to draw many Italian graduates abroad.

Then the virus seemed to do what years of incentives couldn’t.

Last year, the number of Italians between the ages of 18 and 34 returning home rose 20 percent year over year, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry.

The Italian government has welcomed the return of some of the country’s best and brightest countries as a silver lining to a pandemic brutal for Italy, calling the postponement a “great opportunity”. There is also a financial advantage as Italians who spend more than six months in the country have to pay their taxes there.

Paola Pisano, Italy’s Minister for Technological Innovation, said at a conference in October that Italy would have the chance to benefit from the skills and innovation that returning Italians bring with them.

She also said Italy must do its part to keep them there. For one thing, the country needs “a strong, diffuse, powerful and secure internet connection” so that those who have moved abroad can “return to their country and continue working for the company they worked for”.

A group of Italians formed an association called Southworking to encourage remote working from the less developed south of Italy in the hope that returning professionals would devote their free time and money to improving their hometowns.

“Your ideas, your volunteer work and your creativity stay on the land where you live,” said Elena Militello, the association’s president, who returned to Sicily from Luxembourg.

To encourage remote work, the association creates a network of cities with fast internet connections, an airport or train station nearby, and at least one common work area or library with good WiFi.

To map them, the association received help from Carmelo Ignaccolo, a graduate student in urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who returned to Sicily after the coronavirus.

For the past few months, Mr Ignaccolo has been overseeing exams with the Mediterranean in the background of his zoom screen, teaching classes near his great-grandfather’s olive press, and escaping the heat by studying in a nearby Greek necropolis.

“I am 100 percent for an American professional life,” he said, “but I have a very Mediterranean lifestyle.”

Not only the south of Italy benefits from the return traffic.

Roberto Franzan, 26, a programmer who built a successful start-up in London before joining Google, returned to his home in Rome in March.

“You go to the bar and you can just start talking to just about anyone,” he said. “It worked great for me.” He said a number of interesting startups and tech companies had popped up in Italy and he could envision investing in the country.

“That moment has given us all along that getting back to your roots can be a good thing,” he said.

Italy’s business leaders have urged the government not to miss the opportunity.

“Coronavirus, the U-turn of the brain drain,” wrote Michel Martone, a former deputy labor minister, in the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero. He called on lawmakers to find a way to sustain the “extraordinary army of young people who have returned home in the face of the emergency”.

However, some experts say there aren’t really that many benefits to solidify.

While many Italians may have returned to the Tuscan countryside or Sicilian beaches, their thoughts still benefit American, British, Dutch, and other overseas businesses.

“Zoom isn’t going to solve Italy’s problems,” said Enrico Moretti, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley who focuses on labor and urban economics and is part of the Italian brain drain himself.

Brunello Rosa, a London economist who is another member of the diaspora, said returned Italians “produce an activity for a foreign entity – they create value abroad and income abroad.” He added that “the fact that they spend their salary in Italy doesn’t really make a difference.”

A more likely outcome, he said, is that the virus will lead to economic rubble and huge unemployment that will spark another wave of emigration once European countries lift their locks.

To really tackle the problem, Italy and others would need to undertake profound structural and cultural reforms that tighten bureaucracy and improve transparency, rather than relying on “people returning home because the food is bad abroad and the weather is bad “.

Mr. Ignaccolo, the MIT graduate student, plans to return to the US to pursue his academic career and the new company that programmer Mr. Franzan is starting will be based in Delaware.

The disadvantages of working in Italy are also of concern to Ms Parisi, who is concerned that her career advancement would be hampered in what she believes is an Italian business world with limited scope for younger workers. She admitted London’s lack of sun was dreary and British food bad for her skin, but said other things in life were important too.

“I am young, I am a woman and I am in a very high position,” she said, explaining that she would return to her job in London when her office reopened.

“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I could both keep the job and live in Italy, ”she said of her time there. “But I always knew it would only be temporary.”