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RESTAURANT

Venice tourist beaten over unpaid steak bill

A tourist celebrating his wedding anniversary at a Venice restaurant was reportedly beaten by waiters after refusing to pay for a steak that was badly cooked.

Published: 23 September 2015 10:24 CEST
Venice tourist beaten over unpaid steak bill
A Belgian tourist celebrating his wedding anniversary was reportedly beaten by waiters after refusing to pay for a badly cooked steak. Photo: Gail/Flickr

Il Messaggero reported that the Belgian couple were enjoying a romantic dinner in the at the restaurant Trattoria Casanova in central Venice on Monday when the man raised a problem about the way his steak had been cooked.

Although staff hurried to change the man's steak the tourist still refused to pay – causing an argument to break out between the tourist and the waiting staff at the restaurant.

Allegedly, during the argument the tourist was set upon by three or four of the restaurant's staff.

“In a flash the waiters had thrown him to the ground and were kicking and punching him,” Il Messaggero quoted an eyewitness as saying.

Following the incident the tourist was taken to hospital, accompanied by his wife, where he spent the night in accident and emergency after sustaining a black eye and broken teeth in the attack.

“The waiters reacted badly and violently,” the witness told Il Messaggero. Police are investigating the incident, which was captured on CCTV.

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VENICE

Italy to pay €57m compensation over Venice cruise ship ban

The Italian government announced on Friday it would pay 57.5 million euros in compensation to cruise companies affected by the decision to ban large ships from Venice's fragile lagoon.

Published: 3 December 2021 17:41 CET
A cruise ship in St Mark's Basin, Venice.
The decision to limit cruise ship access to the Venice lagoon has come at a cost. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

The new rules, which took effect in August, followed years of warnings that the giant floating hotels risked causing irreparable damage to the lagoon city, a UNESCO world heritage site.

READ ALSO: Venice bans large cruise ships from centre after Unesco threat of ‘endangered’ status

Some 30 million euros has been allocated for 2021 for shipping companies who incurred costs in “rescheduling routes and refunding passengers who cancelled trips”, the infrastructure ministry said in a statement.

A further 27.5 million euros – five million this year and the rest in 2022 – was allocated for the terminal operator and related companies, it said.

The decision to ban large cruise ships from the centre of Venice in July came just days before a meeting of the UN’s cultural organisation Unesco, which had proposed adding Venice to a list of endangered heritage sites over inaction on cruise ships.

READ ALSO: Is Venice really banning cruise ships from its lagoon?

Under the government’s plan, cruise ships will not be banned from Venice altogether but the biggest vessels will no longer be able to pass through St Mark’s Basin, St Mark’s Canal or the Giudecca Canal. Instead, they’ll be diverted to the industrial port at Marghera.

But critics of the plan point out that Marghera – which is on the mainland, as opposed to the passenger terminal located in the islands – is still within the Venice lagoon.

Some aspects of the plan remain unclear, as infrastructure at Marghera is still being built. Meanwhile, smaller cruise liners are still allowed through St Mark’s and the Giudecca canals.

Cruise ships provide a huge economic boost to Venice, but activists and residents say the ships contribute to problems caused by ‘overtourism’ and cause large waves that undermine the city’s foundations and harm the fragile ecosystem of its lagoon.

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