Cruise Ships May No Longer Call On Venice

Venetian tourism officials have been laying down the law lately. First, they ticked off local and visiting high-rollers by shrinking the private areas of Lido Beach. Then they instituted a tourist tax and annoyed the amorous by threatening to ban love locks. Now, the city is looking to keep cruise ships from docking at its ports.

"The problem of these juggernauts of the sea needs to be confronted," Mayor Giorgio Orsoni said. He is set to meet Wednesday with the head of Venice's port authority regarding this issue, The Telegraph reports.

It has been proposed that ships be moved to the mainland Porto Marghera. When ships pull into Venice, their wake and undertow damages the canal banks, mud banks and wooden piles that support the city.

The biggest ships can be 1,000 feet long with 16 decks, and bear almost 4,000 passengers. Last year 1.6 million tourists arrived in Venice by cruise.

Similar sentiments have been expressed stateside. In Key West, a cruise port expansion is contested.