On Sunday the 2nd June 2019 at around midday news was reaching us here at Cruise.co.uk that the MSC Opera cruise ship had collided with a smaller tourist ship after losing control whilst arriving in Venice San Basilio Pier in the Giudecca Canal earlier that morning.
It was soon clear by video footage being posted on line to social media accounts and news agency’s how serious this incident was. You can see passengers from the smaller ship running away seconds before the impact. A few people were injured.
It is still unclear how this accident happened and MSC cancelled the following sailings while the ship was in dock being investigated.
Last weekend we watched as many locals protested in Venice calling for the larger ships to be banned from entering Venice Lagoon. This has been an ongoing battle for many years with the locals in Venice saying the larger cruise ships are damaging the city, the ships cause regular flooding and this is then damaging to the beautiful historic buildings.
Italy’s Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli has reported that this incident was proof that bigger ships should not be sailing on the Giudecca Canal and that officials were “finally close to a definitive solution”.
The local government placed a ban on cruise ships weighing more than 96,000 tonnes in 2013 but this was later overturned a few years later in 2017
It has been noted that the larger ships would be diverted away from the city centre of Venice but theses plans are expected to take a few years to come into force.
So what are your thoughts on the larger cruise ships in Venice, Should they be banned? or should they carry on sailing?
Till next time
Meghan x