Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari on Monday made a public call for tenders in a bid to calm polemics over a potential deal with Coca-Cola that would see 60 vending machines placed around the city.
The deal grabbed headlines last month, with critics claiming that Venice was ''selling itself'' to the drinks giant in a 2.1 million-euro agreement that would see vending machines in St Marks Square, where tourists are forbidden from picnicking under strict council rules on urban decorum.
The city council's assurances that the vending machines would be restricted to vaporetti landing stages and car parks and would not bear the Coca-Cola logo has failed to quell the row.
''We are not reneging on any agreement with Coca-Cola, we are simply making a public call for tenders which is the most transparent way of doing things,'' Cacciari stressed Monday.
''Everyone who has publicly declared that under the same conditions as the Coca-Cola deal they would happily make more advantageous offers will now be able to come forward and compete,'' he said.
The mayor added that he was ''convinced'' that once the restrictions and costs of the deal were made public, other vending machine companies would back down.
Cacciari has long bemoaned a lack of state funds for the upkeep of city monuments and churches and insists that the Coca-Cola deal is no different from others adopted in the past as part of an ''indispensable'' financial strategy.
Coca-Cola Italy said Monday it was in favour of the competition to establish the best offer for the city and its inhabitants.
''The deal to expand our services... is also, and above all, to help finance the notable efforts being made to safeguard the beauty and fascination of the city of Venice,'' said Coca-Cola Italy General Affairs Director Alessandro Magnoni.
Cacciari last month warned that Venice's monuments and churches risked falling into ruin because too much state aid is being directed into a controversial project to protect the lagoon city from sinking.
