00:00 Here's a quick pop quiz on geography and touristy stuff.
00:04 What's the biggest city in Italy?
00:07 Did you say Rome?
00:08 Then you got it right!
00:09 Rome has a population of over 2 million people.
00:13 And what would you say is the current population of Venice?
00:15 That's a tricky one to know by heart, but to answer correctly, in 2022, it was a little
00:21 over 258,000 people.
00:25 But if I told you that for 80% of them, the Venice they live in isn't the tourist and
00:30 historical one with all the canals.
00:32 It's rather the other side of town.
00:35 If you know someone who's traveled to Venice before, they may have sent you a postcard
00:39 with an image of a gondola in a canal.
00:42 I bet you never imagined that Venice could also just look like this.
00:46 Just a regular old Italian city.
00:49 As tourists, we have a strong misconception about what Venice is.
00:53 We think the real Venice is what we see in the movies.
00:56 Well, I hate to be the one to pop your illusion, but there's more to Venice than straight
01:00 canals and old bridges.
01:03 Here are the boundaries of the real Venice.
01:06 Probably the postcards you get only picture this bit of the city called Centro Storico,
01:11 or historical center.
01:12 But the city also includes the mainland, called Terra Firma, where most Venetians live today.
01:18 The interesting thing to look at is how the number of people living in the historical
01:23 center has decreased over the years.
01:26 From then on, the number started to reduce more with each passing year.
01:30 Today, only 50,000 people can afford to live there.
01:34 To understand that, let's travel back in time for a moment.
01:38 Before Venice became an important Italian city, it was nothing but a fisherman's village.
01:43 It was only around the 5th century that people decided to take a chance and build on the
01:48 marshy ground of the Venetian islands.
01:50 If you've ever wondered how Venice holds up, let's just say it's due to strong
01:54 blocks of wood driven deep into the ground.
01:57 As it turns out, you need oxygen and water to ruin wood, and in marshy soils, there isn't
02:03 much oxygen, so the buildings were safe.
02:06 It was during the Middle Ages that Venice became one of the world's most important
02:10 maritime empires.
02:12 You might remember that's where Marco Polo, the famous merchant and explorer, came from.
02:17 The city was extremely well located, right in the Adriatic Sea, and had access to huge
02:23 commercial empires of the time, like the city of Constantinople.
02:27 At that time, the most prestigious jobs you could get were like the ones Marco Polo had,
02:32 anything related to long-distance trading.
02:36 Since then, Venice consists of 118 islands, and some say there are around 400 bridges
02:42 in the city.
02:43 Question here – can you name at least two of the most famous Venetian islands?
02:48 Let's start with Burano.
02:50 The island of Burano is famous for its lace-making and its super colorful landscape.
02:55 FYI, Burano is also home to a less famous leaning tower than the one in Pisa.
03:00 It's called the Tower of Burano.
03:03 And then there's the island of Murano.
03:05 They are famous for their products of fine glass.
03:08 You can find anything from huge vases to water glasses, jewelry, and so on.
03:13 They're quite exquisite, but also super expensive.
03:17 But you know what they say – time changes everything.
03:20 In the 20th century, Venice was no longer the trading hub it once was.
03:24 Its economic power was failing seriously, so the city decided to invest in something
03:29 else – its historical value.
03:32 And the best way they found how to do that was through preservation.
03:36 Let's face it, if you're a tourist who enjoys history, you would jump at the opportunity
03:41 of visiting a UNESCO heritage site, wouldn't you?
03:44 Initially, this was rather good for the city.
03:47 But the thing is, as tourism in Venice skyrocketed, the old dynamics of the city started to change
03:53 to keep up with the intense tourism.
03:55 Truth is, in our day and age, lots of tourists rather buy small and cheap souvenirs than
04:01 invest their money in expensive manufactured goods such as the classic Murano glasses.
04:07 The traditional Venetian stores that were open hundreds of years ago just didn't have
04:11 the economic power to compete with new stores that opened to cater specifically for tourists.
04:17 And then, what happened next is something we often call "falling down the rabbit hole."
04:23 Because as it turned out, tourists attracted more tourists, and Venice lost control over
04:28 it.
04:29 The maximum sustainable number of tourists in Venice would be around 22,500 people per
04:35 day.
04:36 But in 2021, Venice saw up to 80,000 tourists per day in certain parts of the year.
04:42 If you remember that there are only 50,000 people living in Venice's historical center
04:47 nowadays, that almost means that tourists outnumber locals by 2 to 1.
04:52 This is what gave Venice one of its current nicknames amongst the locals, which is a "short-term
04:58 city."
04:59 I mean, if you live in a touristy city such as New York City or Paris, you'd be sure
05:04 to avoid the parts of the city that are more touristy.
05:07 But in Venice, that's difficult, since we're talking about several small islands.
05:12 Whether you want it or not, the city is constantly packed.
05:16 Locals started to complain that things such as getting a table at a restaurant or crossing
05:21 an important square such as Piazza San Marco would take hours.
05:25 Not to mention that instead of normal car traffic, well, in Venice, you can experience
05:30 some gondola traffic.
05:32 But that's not even the worst that's been happening.
05:35 As the number of tourists per year started to rise exponentially, so did the infrastructure
05:40 to accommodate all these people.
05:42 When landlords understood that they could make more money off of tourists than they
05:46 could with locals, overall prices started to soar.
05:49 That's why from the 1950s onward, fewer Venetians were able to continue living in
05:55 the city's historical center.
05:58 Tourists decided to more than double the prices of housing.
06:01 So a family that paid around 800 euros for their apartment now had to pay something around
06:06 1,500 euros to stay in the same place.
06:10 And social services couldn't even do anything about it because there were so many similar
06:15 cases happening all over the historical center.
06:18 This may sound like something small, but when you stop to look at the big picture, it's
06:22 changing the social fabric of the city.
06:25 Yep, that's what usually happens in super touristy places.
06:30 France is having to deal with a similar problem of over-tourism.
06:33 France's Ministry of Tourism has concluded that tourists are spending less money, yet
06:38 over-exploiting the classic tourist landmarks.
06:42 Cities are made up of much more than just buildings and infrastructure.
06:45 As urban sociologist Georg Simmel said, "Cities need to be heterogeneous, and by raising the
06:51 prices of rent so much, the first ones to be kicked out of the city were the younger
06:56 generations.
06:57 After that, only well-established elderly people could afford to stay in the city center."
07:03 Things started getting so out of hand in Venice's historical center that UNESCO itself threatened
07:08 to put the city on its list of heritage sites in danger of severe damage.
07:13 That's tough, huh?
07:15 The city is still trying to find ways to mitigate the effects of tourism.
07:19 The first thing they did was to ban those huge cruise ships from stopping in the city's
07:24 historical area.
07:25 Oh, and the city produced a tourism fee.
07:28 Normally, anyone sleeping in the historical center already pays a fee.
07:33 But nowadays, tourists have to register their entry and pay a daily fee for exploring the
07:38 main island.
07:39 The profits from this fee are directed toward making life in Venice's city center more
07:43 affordable.
07:44 Hopefully, these policies will allow Venetians to move back to Venice's city center.
07:49 Ciao!
07:50 That's it for today!
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07:56 friends!
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