Venice Reviving
Venice is determined to be in the news. The exhibition here at the RIBA is not the only part of the drive for publicity. Italia Nostra is also Proposing that visitors to Venice should be . allowed to take out up to ten kilos of duty-free purchases, a suggestion that is. hardly likely to be Popular with other Italian cities. And now the Carnival is to be revived. In the .city briefly just before Christmas, I realised how urgent it is for Venice to establish its future. In the modern world, it is largely a city without a purpose. What, apart from an attraction for tourists, is its purpose to be? As a shopping centre, it is inferior to Rome and often more expensive. It is not sur- prising that young Venetians prefer cars and modernisation to the preservation of mediaeval splendours. There is all the difference in the world between living-with and passing-through. But even the present number of tourists it attracts isn't enough. The new idea'is to create a winter season. Hence the Carnival.
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