Venice advised to ban ALL cruise ships by tourism expert who says they’re ‘destroying’ the Italian city

VENICE is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in the world – but residents are leaving Venice in their droves with just one resident living there permanently per 140 tourists.

The city has plans to rid itself of huge tourist cruise ships by 2021, but a leading expert on Venice says that even more has to be done to bring the city back to glory.

Professor Salvatore Settis is the author of If Venice Dies, a book about the detrimental effects that tourism and political corruption have had on the city.

He told Sun Online Travel: “It is a big mistake to have gigantic cruise ships sailing through Venice.

“Some of them are twice as high as the buildings and twice as long as the Piazza San Marco.

“They are visually disturbing and utterly destroying it.

“We have a hierarchy where tourism comes before the city and we need to reverse this.”

The current plans are for cruise ships over 55,000 tonnes to be banned from sailing through St Mark’s Basin and docking in the city within the next three years.

The huge ships, bringing in millions of tourists each year, are criticised for many reasons, including polluting the city, damaging its infrastructure and spoiling the views.

At present they are able to sail right through the centre of the city, which is made up of historic canals.

By 2021 they will be forced to dock some way away from the city on the mainland at Marghera – although ships which weigh under 55,000 tonnes will still be able to sale through.

But Professor Settis believes the ships, which dwarf the beautiful city, should be kept off the Italian coast entirely.

He continued: “Cruise ships should be banned from the whole of Italy for security reasons.

“They are banned from all the Italian coasts with the exception of Venice and Venice is the most precious piece of the Italian coast.

“It should be safeguarded even more than anywhere else.”

30 million tourists currently visit Venice per year and some have likened it to an Italian Disneyland.

However Professor Settis doesn't think that the city should start charging for entry - as this would only turn it into even more of a theme park.

He says: "Venice is being abandoned by its citizens – it is now a city without citizens – and that is the death of the city. We need to encourage people to move back to Venice so that it becomes a real, working city again."

Sun Online Travel previously revealed the video of the phone-addict tourists who sat on a traditional gondola looking at their phones - not looking at the breathtaking views around them.

Tourists also called the police earlier this year after a Venetian restaurant charged them £1,000 for three steaks and a plate of fried fish.