Veniceland

The Venetians (the ones in Italy, not the ones in Los Angeles, Las Vegas or on the second rock from the sun) have huge numbers of tourists every year, and according to one Travel Channel show I saw recently, most of them spend only one day in town. That means they're not spending much when they visit and that can make them a net financial loss to the city.

Now the city of Venice is considering charging an entrance fee to enter the town. It may sort of become an Italian theme park (h/t The Corner):

Venice may soon become the first city in Italy to charge tourists for the pleasure of visiting it as authorities look to the introduction of an 'entrance charge' to offset the damage done to the unique architecture by hordes of holidaymakers.

The idea of a compulsory fee for the city that receives some 16 million visitors per year has been in the air for months now.

But this week the city's mayor, Massimo Cacciari, indicated for the first time that it is under serious consideration.

"The great tourist centres have the problem of sustaining the costs of maintenance and conservation caused by the massive presence of guests," Mr Cacciari told Panorama, a news weekly.

With nearly 50,000 tourists pouring through the city every day, he went on, "people who use the city's services and make it dirty...Venice is in difficulties. If a subsidy from the state is out of the question, we will be obliged to think of a new entrance tax or something of the sort."

If I want to see Venice, I just drive 250 miles north on the I-15. It's clean, comfortable, and relatively free of Europeans. The best of all possible situations.