Venice is cracking down on souvenir shops selling low-cost goods that have proliferated along the popular canals of the city over the past decade.
The city is now taking steps to restrict and regulate shopkeepers selling plastic miniature gondolas, cheap carnival masks, crudely manufactured “Murano-style” trinkets, and low-cost leather goods. While a certification process exists so consumers can determine the authenticity of, for example, an original Murano glass object, the knock-off figurines, vases and stemware tourists inevitably encounter in Venice remain an affront to artisans carrying on the ancient glass blowing tradition.
The resolution regulating commercial activity is the latest salvo in city administrators’ ongoing war against degradation in the World Heritage city.
Read the full article at The Telegraph.