The highest-paid Venetians are considered to be the gondoliers, of whom there are over 400 in the city. They earn up to 130 thousand euros a year, but even this considerable amount of money is not enough to rent a decent apartment in Venice.
Take, for example, the gondolier Diego Redolfi, who is forced to live with his American wife on one of the small islands located in the lagoon. Redolfi used to work in a hotel, but the administrator's salary was not enough to live in Venice and he changed his profession. On the advice of his brother, he bought a gondola and for almost a year studied how to steer it for 10-12 hours a day. Now he can afford to live in Venice, but only in a tiny apartment where even the two of them are cramped.
Another example is Matteo Secchi, manager of one of the Venetian hotels, and his father Mario, a distributor of a wine company. By birth and in spirit, the Secchis are, of course, Venetians, but formally they live in Mestre, i.e., on the mainland. Mario is already 70 years old. He could retire, but continues to work because work allows him to see old friends. Mario Secchi rents an 80-square-meter apartment in Mestre, but says he would gladly exchange it for a 30-square-meter Venetian apartment. Alas, it is beyond the means of him and his son.
Tourists are partly to blame for the high cost of living in Venice. Now Venice is the uncrowned cruise capital of Europe. In this century, the number of ships entering the city has increased fivefold! On the one hand, tourists play a very important role in the well-being of Venice and Venetians, but on the other, they make the life of citizens extremely expensive.
Tourism is the main source of the city's revenue. However, the number of jobs not related to the tourism business is decreasing catastrophically. This is another reason forcing native Venetians to leave the Pearl of the Adriatic.
Only half of the 20 million tourists spend the night in Venice. The rest take a gondola ride, wander for a couple of hours through the streets and squares, and sail away on their liners, admiring the sunset. But despite this, there are so many tourists that there is still a catastrophic shortage of hotels. In the last two decades, more and more homeowners are converting their houses into hotels. This naturally increases the price of apartments and the cost of renting them. As a result, only wealthy people can afford to live in Venice.
It is not surprising that the population of Venice is melting before our eyes. If 30 years ago more than 120 thousand people permanently lived in the city, now only 55 thousand Venetians remain. The forecasts of demographers are not encouraging: pessimists predict that in about a decade and a half, there will be no people left in Venice who will live there permanently.
One would like to believe that this forecast will not come true, but even the most desperate optimists do not argue with the statements that the city is literally dying out. In 2008, when the population of Venice dropped to 60 thousand people, the townspeople even held a symbolic funeral. A funeral procession of three gondolas with a red coffin proceeded along the canals.
Matteo and Mario Secchi often argue about tourism. They agree that, on the one hand, building owners evict permanent residents because selling apartments to wealthy foreigners who like to come to Venice on vacation is more profitable for them than renting to locals. On the other hand, tourists who come for a day leave little money. It is not enough for the city authorities, for example, to subsidize rental housing for native Venetians.
The father and son argue about methods of solving the housing problem. Mario, along with many Venetians, believes that the authorities should set a fee for tourists to visit the city. Moreover, it should be paid not only by those who stay in Venice for a few days, but also by those who arrive in the morning and leave in the evening. Matteo is against the tourist tax. He is sure that charging money from tourists will worsen the situation even more and turn Venice into a kind of Disneyland.
Another solution comes from Fabio Sacco, the president of the company Alilaguna Spa, whose buses run between Venice and the airport. He proposes to convert part of the palaces into residential buildings for Venetians and make rent in them affordable for ordinary citizens.
Another reason for the housing crisis in Venice is water. Over the last hundred years, floods in the city have become significantly more frequent and severe. Water has severely damaged the first floors of hundreds of buildings. So housing is becoming less and less for objective reasons as well.
The annual subsidies from the central government in the amount of 592 million euros, received by Venice for 30 years, were reduced to 23 million euros in 2005. And although since 2007 Rome has been transferring 133 million euros to Venice, these funds are catastrophically insufficient for everything.
In the 20th century, the water level in Venice rose sharply. Many specialists believe that by the end of the 21st century, Venice could completely go underwater. The Italian government decided to protect the Pearl of the Adriatic with a system of 78 underwater gates, which costs about 7 billion euros. The work has been underway since 2003. The deadlines for the completion of the entire system have been repeatedly postponed. In a year or two, the gates will start operating and will protect Venice from the Adriatic Sea.
Citizens believe that without the intervention of the authorities, who should, as in the seventies of the last century, legislatively limit rent, Venice will die. 'The mayor must intervene and force apartment owners to reduce rent so that ordinary families can afford them,' suggests Matteo Secchi.
Of course, the mayor and officials could have their say, but the problem is that currently Venice has neither a mayor nor a city government. The construction of the gates is accompanied by numerous corruption scandals. The former mayor Giorgio Orsoni, together with 35 city hall officials and contractors, is accused of stealing tens of millions of euros. Last summer, Orsoni and the entire Venetian government resigned. After the mayor's resignation, the city is run by a commissioner appointed by Rome.
Elections for the new mayor are to take place in June. However, most Venetians are pessimistic because no one can guarantee that the next city administration will not steal.
In general, life in Venice is far from as beautiful and glamorous as it might seem from films and books. However, it's not only Venetians who have to shell out. Venice is considered an expensive city for tourists visiting it. Moreover, visitors are charged much more than local residents.
Many foreign tourists do not like this. One Belgian was so outraged by such discrimination that he called the prices in Venice racketeering and wrote a complaint to the European Commission. In it, he asserts over five pages that the city has violated European pricing laws. For example, visiting the Doge's Palace costs tourists 18 euros, while Venetians get in free. Tourists have to pay 5 euros per day for Wi-Fi, while residents use the internet for free. A ride on the water buses – vaporetti – costs tourists 7 euros, and Venetians 1.3 euros.
“European treaties require freedom of movement and equal treatment for all citizens,” he told La Stampa. “Imagine the outcry if this were happening in Paris, London, or Rome.”
However, Mara Manente, director of the International Center for Tourism Studies in Venice, considers the criticism unfair. At least regarding transport. She says tourists can buy special Venezia Unica passes online that allow them to save on transport expenses. For example, a weekly pass costs 60 euros. Mara Manente believes that order should be brought to pricing in the service sector. In restaurants and cafes, tourists also pay significantly more for the same food than residents.