There is now a proposed minimum entry fee into Venice of $2.85, rising to $5.00 and $10 in peak periods, if you haven’t booked into a hotel or paid a $6.00 tourist tax.  The reason?  30 million visitors annually. Poor Venice! Overwhelmed by hordes of noisy tourists,  groups from cruise ships, frequent flooding (75% of the city was flooded in record rainfall last October), its environment degraded (2 million euros is the estimated cost of repairs to St. Marks Cathedral alone) by ships that are reportedly eroding the supports of historic buildings and polluting the water, and its genuine residents driven away, amny of the old house empty and abandoned.

Some year ago there were 175,000 residents; now there are 55,000.  The Mayor has now banned cruise ships sailing past St Marks Square. Some years ago a huge amount of money was raised internationally to address some of the problems – it vanished into the pockets of corrupt officials, it is thought.

And I haven’t mentioned rising sea levels.  It looks as if Venice could be doomed.  As far as I can remember, the money raised years ago was, in addition to repairs to the city, was intended for the building of a sea wall , a barrier similar to that on the Thames outside London.   The opportunity to build a defensive wall was missed.  The problem now is both lack of time, but also will donors give again, given the chronic corruption that any building scheme in Italy seems to be subject to?   Isn’t it sad that greedy and unscrupulous people could be so selfish and short-sighted.

When Epicurus said that the “goal of life is happiness”  he was referring to the happiness of all, not just to a small gang of incompetents and thieves.