The traditions of Burano, a bucolic island in the Venice Lagoon, are threatened by mass tourism. To try to turn the tide, new efforts focusing on ecotourism have been deployed.
If you fly to Venice in the spring or fall, you may see from the sky huge circles and strange swirls in the waters you fly over. These are the nets of the moecanti, the moeche fishermen, of the moulting crabs of the Venice lagoon. For centuries, they have confined crustaceans to this wild part of the Italian Floating City.
Few tourists imagine Venice as a bucolic city. It is more reminiscent of mass tourism; each year, its 50,000 inhabitants see around 30 million visitors pour into their streets. In 70 years, the Venetian population has declined by 70%, with residents driven out by rising rents and cuts in services.
In an attempt to reverse the trend, the Venetian authorities will start charging day visitors an entrance fee of between €3 and €10 this summer.
The new tax will not apply to the smallest islands in the lagoon, although they are also threatened by mass tourism. Burano, a 2.5 km2 island located in the north of the lagoon, attracts thousands of visitors every day.
They take the 40-minute vaporetto, or water bus, from Venice to see the small, brightly colored houses and the leaning campanile of the island. They invade the narrow sidewalks that run along the canal and leave behind them real chaos as well as waste.
Fishing is a centuries-old tradition
Life has always revolved around water in Burano. This fishing village dating from the Middle Ages, whose history dates back to Roman times, has been able to preserve its traditions thanks to its relative separation from Venice.
However, tourism is becoming an increasingly important source of income for fishermen. After being almost halved during the pandemic and starting to rise again, the wholesale price of seafood has plummeted again.
Mark