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TOURISM

More than half of Italians haven’t heard of Rialto Bridge

Italy is full of cultural gems, drawing millions of tourists to the country each year, but many Italians are not aware of them.

More than half of Italians haven’t heard of Rialto Bridge
Venice's Rialto Bridge: famous world-over, but not so much in Italy. Photo: Chris Chabot

The shocking results of a survey sponsored by the drinks company, Bibite Sanpelligrino, have revealed how little some Italians know about the wealth of cultural heritage in their midst.

Some 56 percent of those surveyed said they had never heard of Venice’s famous Rialto Bridge while six out of ten believe that Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ is in Florence, and not Milan.

Photo: Wikicommons

Equally puzzling is that a large number of those questioned associated Alberobello, a town in Puglia famous for its unique trulli homes, with the former Formula One racing driver, Michele Alboreto, and think Certosa di Pavia, a monastery in Lombardy, is a type of cheese.

Meanwhile, 53 percent think the Cascate dell Marmore, a manmade waterfall created by the ancient Romans, is in the Alps and not in the central Italian region of Umbria, and 39 percent believe Sicily’s Valley of the Temples is actually in Egypt.

Sicily's Valley of the Temples: Merlijn Hoek

Some 4,000 people, aged between 18 and 65, took part in the study.

Italian men fared the worst, with 56 percent admitting that they didn’t know of their country’s most famous tourism and heritage sights, compared with 48 percent of women.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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