On the other, the reality: of the one hundred and thirteen thousand people who entered the city yesterday, only fifteen thousand paid the blessed or infamous “ticket”.
And the other ninety-eight thousand? you will say. Because ruthless controls had been announced: sensors, electronic codes and cameras that were practically impossible to escape. Unless you are in possession of the talisman that every shrewd tourist always carries with him: any card that gives him permission to do what others are forbidden.
Since the time of Azzeccagarbugli, in all Italian laws and regulations there has been a first line that declaims implacable prohibitions. But that first line is always followed by a second and a third which contain the list of exceptions and exemptions.
Venetian citizens do not pay the ticketand God forbid, but not even those of the rest of the Veneto for emotional closeness, ei temporary residentshey tourists who want to go to some smaller island or who have been invited to Venice by a friend or relative. Besides of course all those who enter the city after 4pm to have a drink in the lagoon in front of the sunset: the famous Spritz amendment.
The local authorities declared themselves very satisfied with the experiment. In fact, one in ten paying is a more than respectable percentage. His code name is: the usual idiot.
