In Venice, in Piazza San Marco, a historic cafe turned into a battlefield: waiters and tourists started a fight there. The massacre took place on the street veranda after calling on staff to comply with toilet rules, Italy24 reported. The incident happened last week, but the scandal became public in recent days after a video was posted on social networks.
Usually everything is decent at Gran Caffè Chioggia: in a room overlooking the Palazzo Ducale, a small orchestra plays for the public. That day, four tourists came to the cafe and took a table. And then eyewitnesses said that several waiters, usually sedate and thoughtful, began to chase them away.
As it turned out, the cause of the conflict was that the tourists were too persistent in expressing their desire to go to the toilet. The waiters didn’t like the fact that the visitors who took their seats didn’t even place an order. Word for word, and not only fists were used, but also chairs. Some of the personnel tried to cool down the ardor of the warring parties, but this did not help stop the brawl.
Venezia, rissa al caffè in piazza San Marco: botte tra clienti e camerieri non si sa se è per uno scontrino alto o una mancia scarsa pic.twitter.com/HJQcQhfkhM
— BOBOROCK (@boborock55) September 25, 2023
The Italian media noted that Venice has seen everything for some time now due to mass tourism. According to local residents, sometimes the behavior of guests goes beyond the bounds of decency, but such a rude scene has never happened in such a prestigious place.
“It’s simple: the waiters had to intervene and try to restore calm before the police arrived,” said Ernesto Panchin, who heads the Association of State Business Owners. According to him, the toilet on the premises is intended for clients, but you need to be polite and then no one will be refused to use it.
To avoid similar conflicts in the future, he proposed making admission chargeable. And set the price, as in city public toilets, – 1.5 euros. A kind of “piss ticket” for bars and restaurants.
Recently, in order to limit the flow of tourists, Venice decided to introduce a fee for visiting the city – 5 euros, and book the visit itself in advance.