Cruise ships sailing from and to Venice don’t seem to be very popular with the locals, who have been protesting against the huge vessels that usually make the city look tiny. The No Grandi Navi group (which translates to No Big Ships) organised protests on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012. This saw about 70 small boats go onto the water around the port in a call for the big cruise ships to be banned from the city’s port for environmental reasons. During the protest on Sunday three cruise liners were prevented from leaving the port due to safety reasons, with the small boats taking over the water. The ships affected were – the MSC Musica, MSC Opera and Costa Fascinosa. This follows a similar protest in April when dinghies and motor boats took to the water to warm around one of the ships, blaring their horns. news.carrentals.c...

Officials say they are considering measures to ban large ships from passing through parts of Venice after the capsizing of the Costa Concordia cruise liner. "This is one of the hypotheses we're working on," Environmental Minister Corrado Clini said Friday. "In the meantime we should take precautionary measures to progressively reduce risk." The Venice Port Authority opposes measures to curb cruise traffic in the area because the cruise industry employs thousands in the region, ANSA reports. Read more at dalje.com/en-worl...

As the sight of gleaming white passenger ships dwarfing the palaces and churches of the World Heritage-listed city becomes ever more common, there are growing calls for restrictions on where they are allowed to dock. Giorgio Orsoni, the mayor of Venice, is to meet the head of the city's port authority, Paolo Costa, on Wednesday to discuss the problem. "The problem of these juggernauts of the sea needs to be confronted," he told Corriere della Sera newspaper. He said cruise ships could be transferred to Porto Marghera, on the mainland, in order to minimise their environmental and aesthetic impact on Venice. The proposal has the backing of Corrado Clini, Italy's new environment minister, who is a member of the recently-installed technocrat government led by Prime Minister Mario Monti. www.telegraph.co....

The Venice Port Authority and Venezia Terminal Passeggeri (VTP) will open the new Terminal 2, “Isonzo” on July 13. VTP said the opening of the new terminal, which continues the expansion of the facilities of the passenger port, is a major step forward in the development of the territories of Venice, the Veneto Region and the Northern Adriatic. The terminal is located at Venice Marttima and will allow berthing of future large cruise vessels. Venice is one of the most popular cruise destinations in the world.

To boost its European competitiveness, the Port of Venice is planning an offshore platform at some 10 km off the Malamocco port mouth where the seabed has a natural depth of 20 m. The off-shore terminal will allow today's and tomorrow's ultra-large ships to call at the Port of Venice without having to dredge the existing lagoon channels. Source: Port Venice, www.port.venice.i...