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A group of tourists were thrown into one of Venice’s famous canals after failing to follow advice to stop taking selfies and sitting in a wobbly gondola.
Footage of what happened next showed several travelers reconsidering their decisions as they bobbed in the water next to an overturned boat in the canal.
The group had been moving around the ship, posing for photographs in front of famous landmarks before the gondolier had to tell them to sit and stay still while they made a careful maneuver under a bridge near St. Mark’s Square.
But when they ignored him and continued, the boat capsized and left the entire group in the drink, local media reported.
In videos shared on TikTok, tourists were seen clinging to the capsized boat and trying to climb onto another passing boat.
The tourists were photographed in the canal after falling from the boat as it passed near a bridge.
Tourists were reportedly told to stay still and sit to keep the boat stable.
Some clung to another passing boat after falling into the canal near St. Mark’s Square.
After the boat capsized, the gondolier jumped into the icy canal to help his passengers to safety, The New York Post reported.
The Venezia Non è Disneyland (Venice is not Disneyland) Instagram page, which shares tourist exploits in the city, said the group escaped safely and received “hospitality and warmth” at the nearby La Fenice theater.
The site exists to document the “inappropriate” behaviors of the 20 million annual visitors to Venice, a divided city that has struggled for years with overtourism.
In 2021 interviewThe page’s founders described the common problems of tourists swimming in the canals, which they warned were “unsafe and dirty, so not ideal for health reasons.”
‘We really love that so many people want to see Venice and we think it is such a beautiful city that everyone should see it. “But we really believe that travelers should go much more off the beaten path in Venice,” they said.
In 2022, the mayor of Venice weighed in with similar concerns, sharing a video of two cheeky tourists riding motorized surfboards along the Grand Canal.
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called those mocking Venice “imbeciles” in an email, asking citizens to help identify and find the surfers.
He offered a free dinner to anyone who could help bring them to justice.
“Venice is NOT Disneyland,” he captioned a video of the couple passing under an arched bridge.
The Australian tourists were eventually detained and fined 1,500 euros each, according to La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre.
The mayor said he wanted them prosecuted for tarnishing the city’s image.
Venice will now become the first city in the world to charge an entrance fee to day-trippers in a determined bid to curb mass tourism, its tourism chief announced in September.
Starting in 2024, the city will introduce a 5-euro fee for passing tourists, although hotel and Airbnb guests will not be affected by the measure, Simone Venturini said.
The fee will be trialled for 30 days next year to start, focusing mainly on spring holidays and summer weekends when tourist numbers are at their peak.
The plan aims to find “a new balance between the rights of those who live, study or work in Venice and those who visit the city,” tourism chief Simone Venturini said.
It comes in response to a growing backlash against the influx of day-trip tourists and large cruise ships packing the city.
But critics say the fee is missing the point, ignoring the more fundamental issue that Airbnb’s short-term rentals keep rents high and deter permanent residents.
Matteo Secchi, president of the Venice residents’ activist group, said the new fee would effectively turn the city into “Disneyland.”
“Making visitors pay to enter turns Venice into a museum or a theme park rather than a city where people live, go to the supermarket and drop their children off at school,” he said.
From above, an overturned gondola with tourists still swimming around it in Venice
Tourists are seen enjoying gondola rides through the famous canals in Venice, September 3, 2023.
Protesters demonstrate against mass tourism and huge cruise ships, and call for a change in the way tourists are served in the city after the lockdown in Venice, Italy. June 13, 2020
Plans to introduce rates for day tourists were originally mooted in 2019 but were postponed due to the pandemic.
Last year, Venice finally made plans to charge tourists 10 euros to enter the city year-round, but ultimately scrapped the policy, with Venturini citing “resistance.”
A spokesperson for Mayor Luigi Brugnaro saying Late last year, plans had been delayed because the city council had not yet fully approved a new admissions process.
Technical and procedural problems were expected to delay the plan by six months.