Locals save Venice island from private takeover, open it to all
- A Venetian group won a bid to oversee part of Poveglia island, preventing private development.
- The group, Poveglia per tutti, will control the northmost island's green space under a six-year lease.
- They plan to improve accessibility for all visitors, including building safer moorings.
A group of Venetian locals won a bid to oversee part of one of the city's islands that was at risk of being turned over to private developers.
The group, Poveglia per tutti (Poveglia for all), told Paste BN in a statement that they will assume control of the green space on the northmost island of the three that make up Poveglia beginning on Friday. The association will maintain control of the area under a six-year lease and said they hope to make improvements to the island to make it more accessible to visitors.
"Our main goal is to ensure that the island does not get sold to private owners, as has already happened to other islands in the lagoon that have become inaccessible to non-paying visitors," the group said in a statement to Paste BN. "The island has always been accessible only to small boats due to the absence of safe landing points, and is not connected by public transport. We are now working to make it more accessible by building safer moorings. The island will always be open to everybody, not just local residents."
The group also wanted to assure visitors that their section of the island would remain open to out-of-town visitors, as previous media reports said their plan was to make it a locals-only haven.
"We categorically deny what has been reported by some press outlets regarding the claim that Poveglia will no longer be visitable from now on, or limited to a selected category of visitors," their statement said.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for Paste BN. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.