Salvate Venezia! E da che cosa, per l’esattezza?

The Acqua Granda of 1966 set in motion initiatives to 'save Venice' under the patronage of UNESCO, which gave rise to a myriad of restorations. This was another occasion for a debate on the most appropriate economic and cultural choices for the urban centre, and of taking position for or against an economy entirely centered on tourism. Since the 1870s there has been a strand of critiques regarding this choice. After the the First World War, with the movement of a large part of the port and industrial activities to the mainland, the problem seemed to have been overcome. During the years of the industrial boom, the historic center of Venice even seemed reduced to a sort of periphery of itself. The initiatives for the protection of Venice, in conjunction with the crisis of large industry in the 1970s, have given new life to the historic center which, however, after the geopolitical changes following 1989 was overwhelmed by the exponential development of tourism: abandoned by residents, the center ended up mainly satisfying the needs of the masses of people who passed through it. The worsening of the tides, caused by industrial activities until the 1970s, then worsened further due to the needs of tourist navigation. Added to this is the narrative developed by the media on the "decadence" of Venice which does nothing but encourage these trends. On the other hand, the interested exaltation of the alleged Venetian "peculiarities" also reflects the normalcy of a city which, from the fall of the Serenissima to the present day, has always participated in the trends that affected other cities in the world, including industrialization, urban specialization, creation of new infrastructures, increased mobility, social housing, concentration on services, and, lastly, speculative gentrification.