TIG Post

Tag: Venice

  • Venice implements measures to tackle over-tourism impact

    Venice implements measures to tackle over-tourism impact

    Venice is set to implement new regulations, effective from June, aimed at mitigating the impact of mass tourism on the iconic Italian city.

    The measures include a ban on loudspeakers, which can cause “confusion and disturbances,” and restrictions on tourist groups exceeding 25 people.

    Over-tourism has become a pressing concern for Venice, and these efforts follow the approval of a trial €5 fee for daily visitors in September.

    The city, spanning just 7.6 sq km, hosted nearly 13 million tourists in 2019, with numbers expected to rise post-pandemic, prompting measures to address the strain on the historic city.

    The latest policies, overseen by Elisabetta Pesce, focus on enhancing the management of organized groups within the historic center.

    Amid the challenges posed by over-tourism, an increasing number of Venice residents are opting to relocate to escape the potential overwhelm caused by tourists.

    Citizen associations are actively monitoring available beds for both tourists and residents.

    The city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, faced a potential listing as endangered due to climate change and mass tourism impacts, though it was ultimately spared.

    Venice joins other European destinations in adopting measures, such as entry fees and fines, to address the adverse effects of excessive tourism.

  • 21 people killed after Venice tour bus falls from bridge

    Officials have reported that a bus crashed and caught fire near Venice, resulting in the deaths of at least 21 individuals, including children.

    The bus crashed through a fence and fell about 15 meters (50 feet) near train tracks in the Mestre district, which is linked to Venice by a bridge.

    City prefect Michele Di Bari said that there were five people from Ukraine, one person from Germany, and the driver was from Italy who were killed.

    Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said a very sad and big event had occurred.

    “He said on social media that it was a very bad situation, like something out of a bad movie. ”

    One person who helped save others talked about a sad event involving young people, mostly kids or teenagers, with only a few adults involved.

    Emergency services reported that three children, including a baby, were among the people who died. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that the number of casualties could increase.

    Fifteen people got hurt, and five of them got really hurt. Venice officials said they counted Ukrainians, Austrians, Spaniards, and other tourists from different countries.

    The local governor said that in the accident, two teenagers who were 16 years old and two younger kids got hurt.

    The bus, which had 39 people onboard, had an accident at approximately 7:45 PM (5:45 PM GMT) on Tuesday. It seems that a local company rented the vehicle to transport tourists from the old part of Venice to a campsite in the nearby Marghera area.

    The car is believed to have been a type of vehicle that used both electric batteries and methane gas to run. According to reports from Italy, the gas tank exploded as soon as the bus crashed into something. The leader of the fire brigade, Mauro Longo, said that the batteries also caught fire, which made it difficult to remove the bus.

    People who saw what happened said on Rai TV that they could hear people yelling, but the fire was too big for them to do anything about it.

    A Gambian worker and another person who worked with him were some of the first to arrive at the place. He said that he saved three or four people from the bus, including a young girl.

    It is not clear why the bus went down a hill and crashed through a guard rail and metal barrier. The police are watching videos from surveillance cameras close to where the accident happened.

    The driver of the bus was 40 years old and had been working for the bus company for seven years. It was not clear if he had tried to slow down or stop the bus before the accident.

    The reports suggest that he might have gotten sick right before the accident happened.

    Firefighters finally took away the damaged bus from the place on Wednesday morning.

    A place with psychologists and psychiatrists has been opened at a hospital close by to help and support the families of the victims.

    Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, expressed her condolences to the victims and their loved ones.

    In 2013, a lot of people died when a big bus crashed on a long bridge close to a small town called Monteforte Irpino in Italy. The bus hit many other cars before it fell off the bridge and into a deep valley.

  • Eni ends palm oil procurement for biofuels

    Eni has definitively ended the procurement of palm oil for use at the Venice and Gela biorefineries for the production of hydrogenated biofuels.

    The last shipments arrived in the last few weeks, ahead of the declared goal of becoming ‘palm oil-free’ by the end of 2022.

    Eni’s biorefineries in Venice and Gela are already fuelled with ‘waste & residue’ raw materials, such as used cooking oil and animal fats, for more than 85% of their processes, as well as other biomasses regulated by current national and European regulations.

    In November, the first load of vegetable oil produced in the Makueni agri-hub in Kenya will arrive at the Gela biorefinery, where castor, croton and cotton seeds are pressed.

    These agri-feedstocks, produced by Eni, do not compete with the food chain.

    They are grown in degraded areas, harvested from wild trees or are derived from the enhancement of agricultural by-products.

    In addition to the country’s agri-feedstocks, whose production will reach 2,500 tonnes of oil by the end of 2022 and 20,000 tonnes by 2023, there is also the collection of waste and residues, including used vegetable oil, collected in Kenya.

    The first shipments are on their way to Italy and up to 5,000 tonnes are expected to have arrived by 2023.

    In 2014, the biorefinery in Porto Marghera, Venice became the first example in the world of converting an oil refinery into a biorefinery, and today Eni is the first energy major to build a vertical integration model for the supply of its plants, enabling it to promote more sustainable local development in Africa.

    Eni’s biorefineries produce hydrogenated HVO biofuels which are destined, either purely or in blended form, for diesel engines, biodiesel for the chemical supply chain, biogpl and biojet for air transport.