How Venice's Artisans Are Working to Save the City

1 ~~~ How Venice's Artisans Are Working to Save the City ~ Conde Nast USA ~~~

It’s been exactly two years since Sebastian Fagarazzi’s business closed down. His family had run an upmarket menswear store near the Rialto Bridge in Venice for nearly three decades. “It was an institution,” he tells Condé Nast Traveler. “All the Venetian men used to go there.” That, it turned out, would be its downfall. After thriving for 28 years—during which the city hemorrhaged locals and traditional stores were replaced by souvenir shops—the Fagarazzi family admitted defeat. But instead of licking his wounds and moving on, Fagarazzi decided to devote himself to making sure it never happened to anyone else. Alongside his partner Valeria Duflot, Fagarazzi this week launched a scheme that aims to preserve the work of Venetian artisans for generations to come—all by harnessing the power of tourism. This summer, tempers have boiled over in Venice, with thousands of locals taking to the streets to protest the 30 million tourists who flood the lagoon each year; some of whom have gone so far as to jump off bridges, swim in the Grand Canal and—as happened last week—camp overnight in public areas and on pontoons. Last month, the local authorities launched a campaign geared toward changing visitor behavior, imposing fines for things like stopping on bridges and picnicking in public, and encouraging tourists to get off the beaten track rather than sticking to the well-worn paths between Piazza San Marco and the Rialto.

www.cntraveler.com/story/how-venices-artisans-are-working-to-save-the-city ~ 14 August 2017 ~