For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsA British man and his girlfriend have been banned from Venice’s historic city centre after jumping into the city’s Grand Canal.The 35-year-old and his 25-year-old Romanian partner were issued fines of €450 each (£388) and ordered to leave the lagoon city for 48 hours, according to Italian media.Gondoliers spotted the pair bathing and reported them to authorities. They were reportedly celebrating the end of a romantic getaway.Local regulations ban “acts contrary to decorum when bathing in the city’s waters.”“The order, which was immediately enforceable, effectively put an end to their holiday,” the city council said in a statement.“I would like to thank the gondoliers for their cooperation and for promptly reporting the matter,” said the city’s vice mayor Elisabetta Pesce, praising the arrest.“The municipal administration is committed to firmly combating disrespectful and uncivil behaviour, because protecting Venice means defending the dignity of a city that is unique in the world.”The latest penalty follows a crackdown on misbehaving tourists as part of a wider backlash against overtourism in the city. The local council has barred more than 1,000 people from entering the city centre, which is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, since the start of the year.Members of the “Venice is not Disneyland” Facebook group expressed anger at the “senseless and dangerous” action, with one person writing: “We don’t want these disrespectful tourists”.Over 1,000 penalties have been issued since the start of the year (AFP via Getty Images)Others demanded that the couple not be allowed to leave the country until they had paid their fines.One local resident said that the action demonstrated “a complete lack of sensitivity and common sense” and a “cultural void” on the part of tourists.The city has seen a number of flagrant violations of its rules in recent times, including tourists illegally waterskiing on the city’s renowned canals and drunkenly diving from the Rialto Bridge.One man was branded an “idiot” by the city’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, after belly-flopping into the waters from a three-storey building wearing only his boxers.The city was recently the location of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’s wedding to journalist Lauren Sanchez, sparking outrage from locals and environmental campaigners.Deputy mayor of Venice, Simone Venturini, has said that the city had been forced to take drastic action to manage the effects of tourism.“Venice is a city as beautiful as it is fragile,” he said. “No one has a magic wand. Neither Venice nor other European cities grappling with the consequences of overtourism have one. Each place is considering its own approach.”
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British man banned from Venice and fined nearly £400 for swimming in canal
