Venice distributes water guns to tourists against seagulls
This is not a joke: the seagulls in Venice have become more and more rude, and are already snatching food from the hands of diners in restaurants.
Water pistols have become a great success in the war against them, and now many more insane tactics are being thought of
Walla!
Tourism
04/04/2022
Monday, 04 April 2022, 09:07 Updated: 09:17
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In the video: The clean Venice canals during the corona closure (Photo: Reuters, Edited by Amit Simcha)
In recent years, the popular Italian city of Venice has been able to respond very successfully to several new threats that have befallen it.
These included, among other things, the establishment of an advanced system costing about $ 6.5 billion designed to protect the urban space from flooding, imposing entrance fees on tourists visiting the city in order to combat over-tourism, which severely damages Venice's fabric and infrastructure, and a total ban on mooring Cruise ships near the historic center of the city.
This is in order to reduce the influx of tourists who come for short and mass visits.
But recently, the Venetian tourism industry is responding to a danger of a completely different kind: the seagulls, who have gained courage and started snatching food from the humans traveling in the city.
The Points Guy website reports that hotels in the city have begun to fight back, by arming their guests with water pistols.
The water pistols join other methods of fighting these naval flies.
Another method is to bring light food (snacks for example) to guests under napkins, to prevent the birds from reaching it.
Now, as mentioned, guests will find water guns on the dining tables in some of the city's luxury hotels.
The diners are called to aim the "weapon" at the winged invaders, when they feel that their meal is threatened.
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Gained courage and began snatching food from the humans traveling in the city.
Seagulls in Venice (Photo: ShutterStock)
It all started because of a croissant
Enrico Matsuko, the manager of the Grand Canal Hotel, explained that the straw that broke the camel's back was an incident in which he starred in an innocent pastry.
"We decided to act after our guest picked up a croissant from the plate, brought it close to his mouth - and a seagull ambushed him dived towards him and snatched the pastry from his hand."
Soon, more luxury hotels in the San Marco square area adopted the method and even served guests bright orange water guns.
This is after it was discovered that the seagulls feel uncomfortable near this color.
The new tactic was a great success, and according to various reports, sometimes only the sight of the water gun was enough to keep the seagulls away from the guests' food.
"Once they see these guns, they fly away. You don't even have to use them, you just lay them next to you on the table," says Paulo Lorenzo, manager of The Gritti Palace.
And so, what may sound like an action designed to publicize Venice's hotels, is certainly a serious matter.
Much more than many can imagine.
This is because these wing owners have become a nuisance right in the maritime area, where a lagoon in the vicinity of which hotels and restaurants operate.
Many tourists avoided sitting in them outdoors, and the waiters had to deal with things unrelated to their professional work.
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Hotels in the area of St. Mark's Square have adopted the method of war against the seagulls (Photo: ShutterStock)
Coming soon: Falcons in the city sky?
In the end, the interest also came down to the profit line of those tourism businesses.
The most problematic focus of all was the famous San Marco Square area, which is always crowded with visitors - and also seagulls who saw it as a real treasure, while searching for food to devour.
The Venice Hotels Association supports the water pistol strategy, and has even held discussions on additional tactics in which to equip facilities that emit electrostatic pulses.
There was even an offer to bring falcons or other birds of prey to the city.
And that was definitely not a joke either.
"We can introduce a 'falconry system' between hotels," said Claudio Scarpa, the union's president.
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