Venetians hold mock funeral procession for dying city

Milan: Historic Venice is approaching the dread status of living museum, with a population now below 60,000 — a largely symbolic threshold considered by some to signal the end of the city's viability.

As native Venetians flee in droves to the mainland for cheaper housing and easier living, those who have stayed marked their modern-day demise with a mock funeral procession on Saturday.

But Venice city officials say reports of the city's death are premature. In fact, while the population of the historic centre — the piazzas and alleyways that surround the inverted S-curve of the Grand Canal — dipped to 59,992 in recent weeks, as of Thursday it was officially 60,025.

"They will have the funeral in a living village, not yet dead. And it won't die, even if it goes to 59,999," Mara Rumiz, the city official in charge of demographics, said in a telephone interview Friday.

She said the numbers don't take into account the inhabitants of Venice's islands — including glass-making Murano and the Lido beach — nor the many who are not officially registered, including students. Together, they add another 120,000 souls.

But Venice must still resist becoming merely a tourist destination, Rumiz said.

"It is evident that Venice has to safeguard its residents and attract new inhabitants. If not, we risk that Venice becomes only a tourist site, and this is a destiny that we don't want," Rumiz said.

While wandering the narrow allies and waterways of Venice is a tourist's delight, life in Venice is for the hardy and financially resilient.

Housing costs and rents drop to as much as a third in the nearby city of Marghera. And consider the logistics of an everyday errand like grocery shopping.

One would likely need a water taxi ride to a supermarket, another to get home with the groceries, and then with few elevators in residential buildings, a heavy load to lug upstairs.