Venice day-trippers will face steep fines if they fail to pay an access fee under a pilot program

Boy, a €5 entry fee (cover charge, contribution, whatever) is pretty cheap for a major attraction. Somebody needing to use a restroom a few times in a day would easily spend that much anywhere in italy. But I wonder if the idea will catch on in other places? And will that €5 quickly get increased?

The embedded AP story says exemptions would be given to people born in Venice. Huh. So somebody’s a Venice native and then deserts the serene city? When they come back for a daytrip visit, they’re just another tourist.

the pilot program, which is being tested on 29 days, starting with an Italian national holiday on April 25 through mid-July, including most weekends, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. No maximum number of visitors has been set in this phase.

Looks like a revenue generating tax, not a program to limit the "hordes" from descending like locusts.

The fine starts at 50euro

Recent, previous discussion about this:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/venice-tax-exemption

And from Comune di Venezia:
https://cda.ve.it/en

Just another gimmick to extort money from people to replenish the City coffers, just like the hotel tourist tax (Imposta di soggiorno).

An admittance ticket of 5 euro is not going to discourage people from visiting a city where a vaporetto ride costs over 9€ end where you need a couple of euros just to take a leak at one of the City restrooms.

It’s sad that it’s coming to this. And I agree that it might not work. I do, on the other hand, understand the need and desire to temper tourist volumes.

Here is Venice’s mayor explaining the new access fee in English via a short AI generated video.

https://www.veneziatoday.it/attualita/luigi-brugnaro-inglese-intelligenza-artificiale.html