The key speaker at the Foreign Press Association’s first official press conference in its new home was Luigi Brugnaro, the Mayor of Venice. He came to explain to the world the new tax for tourists visiting La Serenissima “because, yes, Venice is in Italy, but she belongs to the world.”

The plan to charge an entrance fee to day-trippers was first proposed in 2019, but never put into practice. The writing on the wall came last August when UNESCO threatened to put Venice on its list of “World Heritage Sites in Danger, thereby abolishing its financial support.