The portal can be found at www.cda.ve.it, with instructions available in English and Italian.

Visitors will have to pay the five-euro fee to enter the city centre during Venice’s first peak tourism period of the year, from April 25th to May 5th, under long-discussed rules confirmed in November.

The charge will also apply for the rest of the weekends in May and June, as well as the first two weekends of July, Venice’s city council said.

EXPLAINED: How will Venice’s ‘tourist tax’ work?

The fee applies to all those who want to enter the area between 8.30am and 4pm, with no discounts on offer.

For now, the scheme, approved last year, does not set a limit on the number of entries.

People who pay via the portal will be issued with a QR code that they can show to officials conducting checks, with fines of €50-€300 foreseen for anyone who breaks the rule.

Visitors staying in the city overnight are exempt, but are required to register on the platform.

Exemptions also apply to residents of the Veneto region, children up to 14 years of age, those needing care, and close relatives of residents, among other categories, authorities said.

The ticketing plan had been repeatedly postponed in recent years, amid concerns it would dent tourist revenue and compromise freedom of movement.

But city authorities finally decided earlier this year to push forward with the experiment after UNESCO warned it could list the city as an at-risk world heritage site, partly due to the impact of overtourism.

Venice also announced at the end of December new regulations on the size of tourist groups, intended to cut down on huge crowds and improve the lives of locals. 

This additional measure is set come into effect from June. The use of loudspeakers will also be banned as they “create confusion”, the city council said in a statement.

Venice has long suffered from the effects of overtourism, with its population of permanent residents falling below 50,000 in 2022 as locals have been increasingly priced out by holiday rentals.

UNESCO put Venice on its world heritage list in 1987 as an “extraordinary architectural masterpiece”, but has repeatedly warned that the city needs to better manage tourism.

“Venice is the first city in the world to introduce such a system, which could serve as a model for other fragile and delicate cities that must be protected,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said last year.

But he called it a “first step” rather than a “revolution” and said authorities stand ready to make changes to ensure it works.

Some 3.2 million tourists stayed overnight in Venice’s historic centre in 2022, according to official data – a number that does not include thousands of visitors who visit just for a day.