Last week, two tourists were fined for riding motorized surfboards on Venice’s Grand Canal, speeding, and hovering above the water’s surface.
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called tourists “idiots who mock the city” by posting a video of the incident on social media and offering to pay for dinner to anyone who reports their location.
City Hall later said two surfers had been identified and fined €1,500 each, and that the city was preparing to take further action against them “for damaging Venice’s image”.
The tourists were fined because they were found to have compromised the safety of navigation on the canal. Moreover, unfortunate athletes were expelled from the city, and surfboards were confiscated.
According to local media reports, surfing, kayaking, and canoeing are banned on Venice’s Grand Canal. Swimming in the city’s canals is also prohibited.
Venice has been dealing with incidents of over-tourism for years. Last year, Italy even declared the waterways around Venice a “national monument” and banned large cruise ships from its canals.
The city is taking steps to curb day-trippers by introducing a new tax on them that will take effect next year. The encumbrance will not apply to those who came to the city with an overnight stay – when booking a hotel stay, they already pay a tax of 5 euros per night.
This is not the first time that foreigners have been fined for breaking the law in Italy’s major tourist area. For example, in 2020, a tourist was fined $1,200 for trying to steal two kilograms of sand from the Italian island of Sardinia. And in 2019, Venice police detained two German travelers for making coffee right on the 430-year-old Rialto Bridge.