One shouldn’t expect the story title “Young couple with children manages to settle in Venice†to actually be news. However, that is exactly what it is because it is so hard for average families to actually move to Venice. Venice is increasingly being turned into a “living museumâ€, a place from which young people are leaving all the time because of the cost of life and where very few people actually move there to live.
Recently, a young couple, married for eight years with two children, managed after eight years and starting with no roots in Venice itself to actually move to city and start life there. The challenge, facing so many people is actually finding a house and enough income to support the family. The reasons are multi-faceted, ranging from the complexity of life in a place with no cars where everything is defined by the water up to simple economics. With Venice being perhaps the most popular destination in Italy renting an apartment to tourist is far more lucrative than renting it to people who want to live there long term. The results are plain though – few children being born, a lot of older people, very expensive houses.
In fact, the couple in question are only able to live there because of the active contributions of friends that want to prove a point and are, therefore, renting the apartment at an appropriate rate.
One of the solutions to this problem that has been suggested at a recent conference on the subject in Venice proposed by none other than the head of the Venetian Hoteliers Association is to actually divide Venice in two. San Marco, Rialto and the surrounding areas can be devoted entirely to tourism while the other areas should be strictly for residential use. Another suggestion is to actually stop the creation of any more spaces that are for tourist use.
Expect to see much more debate in the next few years as this is a problem that will have to be tackled – also because it is key to enabling Venice to survive as a tourist destination as well as a place for people to live in.
