Venice city council is to impose strict new rules for tourist boats sailing along the Grand Canal, the lagoon city's busiest and grandest waterway.
The new ordinance will oblige boats to keep to the right, moving in single file at all times. All overtaking is to be forbidden and each vessel must keep a distance of at least 50 metres from the one in front.
The regulations are aimed at preventing "improper use of the Grand Canal", Deputy Mayor Michele Vianello said, referring to the need to avoid blockages and accidents on the crucial thoroughfare.
The ordinance, which will affect water taxis and bigger boats hired by groups of tourists, has become necessary because of the rapid rise in the number of visitors to Venice.
Over the last five years, the volume of tourists has risen from 12 million a year to 18 million. Many want the pleasure of a boat trip along the picturesque Grand Canal, the city's most photographed waterway.
"We've had problems with boats overtaking each other, sometimes three of them sailing alongside each other and straying way too far across the canal," said Alfonso Garlisi, a Venice traffic police official.
This sort of behaviour is dangerous for other canal users and worsens the perennial problem of waves from passing boats eroding the foundations of buildings on the banks of the canal, he said.
