Death Valley is the driest national park in the United States, receiving an average of about 2.2 inches of rain a year. It’s also regarded as the hottest place on Earth.

So it might come as a bit of a shock to learn the park been closed for more than two weeks – but not from all this excessive heat we’ve suffered through this summer. It’s the rainy remnants of Hurricane Hilary (remember that storm?) that are the culprit.

On August 20, some 2.2 inches (55.88 mm) of rain was measured at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, making it the all-time wettest day recorded for that location, the National Park Service said in a recent news release.

The storm dumped so much rain on a park that gets so little that it left the fragile landscape in rough shape. “Extensive damage including undercutting and pavement loss has been found on major roads in the park and many roads are covered with debris,” the release said.

A repeat of flooding damage

This is the second year in a row this has happened. Then-record rainfall in August 2022 also closed up the park while workers made repairs to roads, trails and facilities.

And now all that work begins yet again. “Although all paved roads were repaired from the 2022 flood damage, there is still a lot of work to be done in the backcountry and this latest storm caused significant additional damage,” the NPS said.

This current closure has no end in sight. On its Facebook page on Labor Day, the park said, “Given the scope of the impacts from Tropical Storm Hilary, and the widespread debris on roads and areas of pavement damage, we don’t yet have a timeline for when the roads will reopen.”

If you’re looking for a national park desert escape, Joshua Tree National Park to the south is open. And in a reminder of how extreme desert country can be, there was fire ban in place there on Wednesday evening.

Splashing out an apartment in the south of France and renovating it yourself may sound like a difficult – and hugely expensive – task.

But this couple have managed to do it twice, all while on a relatively tight budget.

Eric Freeze, originally from Canada, and his wife Rixa, from the US, spent several summers in the region as part of a study abroad program when they were in their 20s, and always felt a strong attachment to Nice.

But the pair, who married in 1998, began seriously looking into purchasing a property in the city after having their four children, Zari, 16, Dio, 14, Inga, 12, and Ivy, 10.

In 2014, they asked a realtor to look for a suitable property for the whole family in Old Nice, a historic neighborhood filled with tenements, churches, and squares.

Nice project

“It was always the place that we were most interested in going and trying to find a place where we could raise our children bilingually,” explains Eric.

They went on to purchase a two-bedroom apartment, which had previously been used as a student rental, for 235,000 euros and spent around a year renovating it themselves.

“We bought it with a mortgage, which is also kind of a miracle,” says Eric, a university professor. “It’s not that difficult for foreigners to buy in France. But it is difficult if you’re getting a loan.”

While the property was habitable, it needed a good deal of work. The couple spent a year or so completing the renovations themselves, which involved putting in new flooring and repainting the walls, as well as transforming the annex area into a bedroom for their children.

“That first year, we were renovating with four kids aged from one to seven,” explains Rixa, an academic and birth-educator. “There was dust and tools everywhere. It was kind of chaotic.”

With their budget already stretched thin, they tried to be as frugal as possible to avoid going into further debt. Eric even learned how to spearfish so that they could save on their food budget.

Meanwhile, Rixa spent most of any free time she had looking for pre-used items, including dishes, for their new place.

Frugal living

“I know Nice so well on foot because I walked everywhere, finding second-hand deals to furnish the apartment,” she says, estimating that they spent around $7,000 to 8,000 on the renovations.

While they were working on the property, Eric began searching for a second apartment that their friends and family could use.

Aware that they didn’t really have the funds for another place at the market rate, he started looking at listings for abandoned properties, with the hope of getting in touch with the owners to see if they’d be willing to sell for an affordable price.

Eric eventually came across a former communist office, which happened to be undernether their apartment, that was still owned by Jeunes Communistes (JC,) or “Young Communists,” a branch of the French Communist Party, and approached them about purchasing it.

Although the couple first made contact with the political party in 2014, it wasn’t until around 2020 that they agreed to sell it to them.

“At the time, we didn’t have enough money to buy it,” says Rixa. “But they said, ‘we don’t have the title work done for it. And that will probably take a little while, but we are interested in selling it.’”

According to the couple, the political party informed them that they already had an interested investor, but were keen to sell the property to someone who cared about it rather than someone “out to make money,” so there was room for negotiation on the price.

“He [the representative] was like, ‘I want a family to have this. I want [it to go to] someone who cares about it and is going to live there,” explains Rixa.

The Freezes went on to purchase the property, which had been separated into two separate sections, for 175,000 euros.

‘Little village’

By then, the couple, who have visitor visas and do not work in France, had worked out a routine that saw the family spend seven months of the year in France and five in their US base near Indianapolis in Indiana.

“He [Eric] renegotiated his university job down to halftime and half salary, so that we could raise our kids and put them in schooling in France for more than half the year, every year to keep their language skills up,” explains Rixa. “So we just go back and forth every year.”

They say that living in Old Nice is like “living in a little village” and they’ve formed many strong friendships with locals over the years.

“We joke that if we walk out of our door, at least within five minutes, we’ll run into somebody we know,” adds Rixa.

When the sale for their second apartment finally went through in 2020, the couple were prepared to throw themselves into the renovation work once again. But this would prove to be a much bigger job.

“It was just a complete shell,” says Eric.

As the property had already been split into two parts, the Freezes decided to transform it into two separate one-bedroom apartments.

While they had more funds to put into the project this time round, the Freezes certainly didn’t have enough to hire experts to do it for them.

“A lot of things that we were wanting to do, they’re the kinds of things that would have just been completely cost prohibitive to have an artisan or somebody do,” explains Eric. “Especially on the timeframe and the budget that we’re working with.”

Big job

They gutted both apartments, removing the plaster from the rock walls, and tearing out the existing flooring. The couple also ripped out the cables and rewired the apartments, and went on to install new plumbing.

They put in new insulated windows and dry walls, resurfaced the plaster walls and even installed a new mezzanine to each of the apartments.

The couple put a lot of care and attention into restoring an intricate renaissance-era wood ceiling, which they’d discovered in one of the apartments after the plaster ceiling was torn out.

“We found a few vestiges of the original ceiling,” explains Rixa. “Using these original pieces of molding, we had new wood moldings made and then restored everything to how it had been before.”

Rixa hand painted and stenciled the ceiling herself, using a pattern found on a Renaissance-era desk they’d bought second hand.

The couple had more “financial flexibility” for this renovation, which meant that they didn’t have to tighten their belts quite so much.

“Again, we did the work ourselves, but we could buy more expensive materials and put a little more money into it than the first time around,” adds Rixa.

Rixa’s father, who is a woodworker, was able to come over from the US for a few months to help them out with some of the work, including the staircases.

“The way to get my dad to visit us is to say, ‘OK, let’s renovate every day,’” she jokes.

The total cost of the renovation for both apartments, which they named “Le Chateau” and “Le Catamaran” came to around $88,000.

The couple, who previously renovated several homes in the US, completed the work in April and have been able to host their families, as well as occasionally rent it out to other travelers, in the months since then.

The Freeze’s say that their life in Nice is very different to the life they have in the US, and being able to spend several months of the year in the French city is benefiting their family significantly.

“For us, it fits a lot of the values of our family more closely than living in the US,” says Eric.

“It’s a place that you don’t need a car. We’re about a two-minute walk from the beach, a two-minute walk to fresh markets, and a two-minute walk to the kids’ schools.

“The kids can come home from school at lunchtime, so they come home and eat. We see them a lot more regularly.”

Complete transformation

He also points out that Old Nice is a place that “preceded cars” so it has much more of a neighborhood feel and lots of shared outdoor space.

“It’s designed for people,” he says. “I think it actually facilitates relationships and sharing space in a way that we don’t get in the US, which is often ruled by the car. Where people live in suburbs, and they’re separated a lot more.”

For Rixa, the social aspect of Old Nice has been one of its biggest plus sides, particularly when it comes to their children, who attend school in both France and the US.

“If you want to play with a friend in the US, you have to make a playdate and arrange a time to get together with your child’s friend,” she says. “Because everybody’s busy, you don’t just run into each other.

“But in France, you can just go out the door and go to the ocean, or the nearest park, and you’re going to see your child’s friends. They’re going to find someone to play with just by heading out. Almost guaranteed.”

While they’re aware of other expats who have struggled to adapt to living in France, they say their experience has been very much positive.

“It’s been a very welcoming, diverse space for our family,” says Eric.

Having spent a lot of time in Old Nice over many years, both Eric and Rixa have noticed a change in the area over the last two decades or so, as its popularity has grown and more people have moved in.

“It’s kind of interesting that it’s changed so dramatically,” says Rixa. “It is gentrifying a lot, which is beautiful. But it’s also a little bit unfortunate, because it pushes families out.”

Eric explains that they have good friends who live in rent-controlled housing, and are concerned that things could change in the future.

“They’re like, ‘If this changes, we can’t live here anymore.’ And that would be terrible,” he says, adding that the fact that Old Nice has been declared a UNESCO site has brought some comfort.

While they’d eventually like to live in Nice permanently, the couple say that moving back and forth between the US suits their family for now.

“One of the things that it’s done for us, is it’s kind of made our family more dependent on each other,” says Eric.

“It’s wonderful for our kids to be able to go back to France or to the US and reconnect with friends that they’ve had there before.

Unique experience

“But their primary peer group is our family. So it’s something that’s really created a family solidarity, because it’s such a unique and odd experience. I don’t think we would choose to do it any other way. At least right now.”

However, he acknowledges that this might change in the future depending on the needs of their children.

Eric, who has published a memoir, “French Dive,” about his family’s life in Nice, recognizes that starting a new life abroad can sometimes seem out of reach for people who don’t necessarily have a huge amount of money, but says this isn’t necessarily always the case.

“If people want to do it they can,” he says. “We don’t have a ton of disposable income. And I think sometimes, the way people present travel experiences, uprooting your life and going abroad, it can sometimes seem inaccessible for your average middle-class homeowner.

“But it is [accessible] if you do the right research, and try to connect people with people in an authentic way. That’s very much been our story and experience.”

A pilot has died after the plane he was flying as part of a gender reveal party in Mexico crashed on Sunday.

Video posted online shows the plane releasing pink smoke as it flies over a couple waiting in front of a sign that reads “Oh baby,” surrounded by pink and blue balloons.

The recording captures the moment the plane’s left wing appears to separate from the fuselage as it flies away from the group of people below.

Pilot killed after his Piper PA-25 left wing failed at a gender reveal party in the town of San Pedro, Mexico. pic.twitter.com/6JILK7fsGm

— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) September 3, 2023

Authorities did not release the pilot’s name, and the cause of the crash is not clear.

No further injuries were reported as a result of the accident.

Gender reveal parties were conceived as a fun way of telling family and friends whether they were about to welcome a girl or a boy into the world.

Originally low key affairs involving the cutting of a cake with colored icing, or maybe some fireworks, some expectant parents have decided instead on risky and expensive gender reveals.

At a 2017 reveal in Arizona, guests were asked to shoot at a makeshift target scrawled with the words “Boy” and “Girl.”

When the target – packed with the highly explosive Tannerite – exploded, a blue cloud poofed upward and immediately ignited the surrounding brush.

It was a boy, and the party ended up costing the guilty patrons more than $8 million in restitution after it set off a wildfire spanning 47,000 acres.

And in Iowa in October 2019, a gender reveal party went south when the family unintentionally built a pipe bomb. When the device went off the entire pipe exploded, sending shrapnel flying that hit and killed a grandmother standing nearby.

Over thirty people are dead after heavy rains and floods in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, state governor Eduardo Leite said Wednesday.

Leite visited the disaster area on Wednesday morning and pledged on social media that no effort would be spared to rebuild the homes and infrastructure destroyed by the rising waters.

The storm is expected to continue impacting the region for the rest of the week.

This week’s rains are the fourth extreme weather event in Rio Grande do Sul in the last three months, according to Leite.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of Social Development (MDS) said at least 50 municipalities in the two southern states have been affected, with approximately 80% of the city of Muçum in Rio Grande do Sul underwater.

On Wednesday, the regional civil defense service issued a flood alert around the Jacuí River and the Jacuí Delta.

“The situation is critical,” MDS Minister Wellington Dias said Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Mohamed Al-Fayed, the outspoken Egyptian tycoon who transformed the fortunes of two London institutions, the Harrods department store and Fulham Football Club, and waged a war of words with Britain’s royals after his son was killed in a car crash alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, has died, according to a statement from his family. He was 94.

“Mrs Mohamed Al Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that her beloved husband, their father and their grandfather, Mohamed, has passed away peacefully of old age on Wednesday August 30, 2023,” the family statement, which was released by Fulham FC on Friday, said.

Al-Fayed forced his way into London’s high society by purchasing a number of lavish establishments after arriving in the UK in the 1970s, and also owned the storied Ritz Hotel in Paris for four decades.

But he proved an increasingly controversial figure during his public fight for British citizenship, and even more so after the death of Diana and his son, Dodi Fayed, in Paris in 1997.

Al-Fayed for decades insisted the pair were murdered, despite inquiries finding otherwise, and was scornful towards the British royal family in his later life.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1929, Al-Fayed seized the entrepreneurial opportunities handed to him during his brief marriage to Samira Khashoggi, a Saudi author and sister of billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.

After working with Adnan Khashoggi and setting up his own shipping company, Al-Fayed moved to London and began piecing together an expansive real estate portfolio that focused on luxury destinations.

In 2021 his net worth was around $1.8 billion, according to Forbes. His businesses interests included Punch Magazine, Kurt Geiger, Manhattan skyscraper 75 Rockefeller Plaza, and the Hyde Park Residence block of luxury apartments in London.

But the jewel in his billion-dollar crown was the famed Harrods department store, which spreads across an entire block of London’s prestigious Mayfair neighborhood and has served as the city’s most glamorous shopping destination for decades.

Al-Fayed’s heavily publicized bid for the House of Fraser group, which included the store, saw him going head-to-head with controversial British tycoon Roland “Tiny” Rowland, and the pair became engaged in several rounds of public mudslinging.

Meanwhile, the tycoon became as famous for his bristly relationship with the British establishment as he was for his investments.

For decades he publicly fought for British citizenship, a pursuit that began when Rowland raised questions in public about the source of his income. Then, in 1994, he sparked a political scandal when he named British lawmakers who had accepted money from him in return for asking questions in Parliament on his behalf.

After 1997, when a car crash claimed the lives of his son and Diana, Al-Fayed would frequently sling insults at the British royal family and became persona non grata among parts of the country’s elite.

At the inquest into Diana’s death in 2008, he called the group a “Dracula family.” He pledged in vain for years to find evidence that countered the official conclusions about the car crash that killed the princess, telling the same court he would not rest “until I die,” even if he lost “everything to find the truth.”

His relationship with the royal family was depicted the fifth season of “The Crown” last year.

Al-Fayed was questioned by police in 2008 in relation to a sex assault allegation that he denied, a Harrods spokesperson said at the time. He eventually sold the store to the Qatari royal family in 2010, for a reported $2.25 billion.

The tycoon also became a major player in the world’s most popular sport, purchasing London’s oldest football club, Fulham, when they were languishing in England’s lower leagues.

At times he could barely resist his showy and opulent tendencies – such as when he erected a golden statue of Michael Jackson at Fulham’s Craven Cottage stadium, a tribute to his pop superstar friend.

But the team’s fans remain grateful for the financial investments that drove the side from the doldrums of the English game into the Premier League and a major European final; the tycoon’s name is still sung weekly on the terraces at Fulham matches, at least ten years after he sold the club.

Al-Fayed had six children, including Dodi and the environmentalist entrepreneur Omar Fayed.

The 2023 National Football League (NFL) season gets underway on Thursday and an injury to Travis Kelce could force the Kansas City Chiefs star to miss out on the opener.

The Chiefs take on the Detroit Lions on Thursday with Kansas City making its first home appearance since lifting Super Bowl LVII.

“Kelce hyperextended his knee today,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid told reporters after practice on Tuesday. “We’ll just see how he does going forward.”

The game is set to begin at 8:20 p.m. ET Thursday at Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri, with Chiefs fans hoping Kelce will be able to recover in time from his injury.

If Kelce doesn’t make it onto the field for the NFL’s curtain raiser, the tight end’s absence will be a huge loss to the Chiefs ahead of the new campaign.

Kelce, who hasn’t missed a game due to injury since 2013, had 110 receptions (third-most in the NFL), 1,338 receiving yards (eighth) and 12 touchdown receptions (second) last year.

However, Kansas City fans will be happy with the latest news surrounding the 33-year-old’s injury – particularly that coming from his older brother.

“He’s got some swelling going on,” Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce told WIP. “But it sounds like, as long as they can get that down, he’s going to have a chance to go. The ligaments and everything are intact structurally from what we know right now, his knee is fine.

“So, really, it’s about getting that swelling down and then seeing how bruised that bone is … But I think he’s going to be good to go. I really do,” Jason concluded.

While the star TE’s availability for Thursday’s opener remains in doubt, per NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero, the injury does not look to be a long-term problem.

Within the Chiefs franchise, they also remain confident of putting on a show for the fans even if Kelce is ruled out from playing the Lions.

“Next guy steps in and we roll – that’s what you do if that’s the case,” coach Reid added on Kelce’s potential absence.

“That’s a Hall of Fame tight end, but we’ll be able to do our job and pull across the finish line,” Chiefs wide receiver Skyy Moore told reporters, while admitting that Kansas City’s offense will look different without Kelce.

Aryna Sabalenka showed why she’s one of the favorites to win this year’s US Open after producing a dominant performance against Zheng Qinwen on Wednesday to reach the semifinals.

The world No. 2 breezed past the Chinese 20-year-old, winning 6-1 6-4 inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Zheng was no match for Sabalenka’s big serve and powerful shots, as the Belarusian comfortably cruised into the US Open’s final four.

After some early high-profile exits, Sabalenka is the highest seed left in the draw and looks like the player to beat.

“I think I definitely played great tennis today,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview. “Super happy with the performance. I have myself another opportunity to do better in the semis.”

She will face either Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová or American Madison Keys for a place in the final.

World No .1

Iga Świątek’s early exit from the US Open means that, no matter what, Sabalenka will become the world No. 1 for the first time on Monday.

Her rise to the top of the world rankings comes after a remarkable year in which she’s won three titles, including her first grand slam at the Australian Open.

She continued that dominant form against Zheng in the quarterfinals, blowing her opponent away in an opening set that lasted just 27 minutes.

The break between sets allowed Zheng to regroup and she began growing into the match. The youngster more than held her own against Sabalenka as the pair exchanged service games at the start of the second set.

That was until the seventh game of the set when Sabalenka was able to break Zheng’s resilience to get her nose in front with a vital break of serve.

Try as she may, Zheng was not able to hit back and the Belarusian served out the match with ease.

It will be Sabalenka’s third consecutive US Open semifinal as she aims to claim a second grand slam title in 2023.

Sabalenka – who is into her fifth consecutive grand slam semifinal – has now won the first seven major quarterfinals of her career, second on the all-time list behind Chris Evert who, amazingly, won her first 48.

Lee has strengthened into a hurricane as it moves over a record-warm Atlantic, with 75 mph sustained winds, according to a 5 p.m. EDT advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

The warm ocean waters are expected to fuel the storm to near Category-5 strength as it approaches the eastern Caribbean.

Lee was located about 1,130 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, the center said. It’s too soon to know whether this system will directly impact the US mainland, but even if the hurricane stays off the coast, dangerous surf and rip currents could threaten the Eastern Seaboard.

The storm had rapidly strengthened earlier Wednesday: Its sustained winds strengthened by 35 mph in the 24 hours after it formed as a tropical depression Tuesday morning.

Lee will start to impact the Lesser Antilles – including the Leeward and Windward islands – on Friday, the center said, and the storm is likely to “intensify into an extremely dangerous major hurricane” by early Saturday.

Even more rapid intensification – defined as an increase in wind speeds of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less – is expected in the coming days. The forecast track takes the hurricane across some of the warmest waters in the Atlantic Ocean and through relatively calm upper-level winds, which will allow Lee to explode in strength.

The waters in the Atlantic are not quite as warm as the steamy conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, which gave rise to Hurricane Idalia last week. However, sea-surface temperatures across the portion of the Atlantic Ocean that Lee is set to track through are still a staggering 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal after rising to “far above record levels” this summer, according to David Zierden, Florida’s state climatologist.

Been thinking a lot recently about how unusual the 2023 Atlantic water temps are. Imagine Lee headed into 1983 waters east of the Leeward Islands (27.5C)- 2023 Lee has 29.5C to work with- an astounding difference. Arguably doubles or triples the chance of Rapid Intensification pic.twitter.com/klSy5RhIUy

— Eric Blake (@EricBlake12) September 6, 2023

Swells caused by the hurricane are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions in portions of the Lesser Antilles on Friday and are expected to reach the British and US Virgin Islands, as well as Puerto Rico, this weekend.

Lee’s maximum forecast intensity of 150 mph is equivalent to the strongest storm in the Atlantic basin this season – Hurricane Franklin – and stronger than any storm so far in the eastern Pacific. If Lee tops 150 mph, it will be the most powerful hurricane to roam either basin this year.

That forecast is also just 7 mph shy of Category 5.

“This storm definitely has the potential to be a Category 5,” Dunion said, adding that nothing in Lee’s forecast path is expected to hinder the storm’s development leading up to the weekend.

The last Category 5 hurricane to roam the Atlantic basin was 2022’s Hurricane Ian. Before that, 2019’s Dorian and Lorenzo were the most recent hurricanes to achieve the feat. Only 39 Category 5 hurricanes have occurred since 1924, according to data from NOAA.

Any shifts along Lee’s track as it nears the Leeward Islands would increase the threat of more direct impacts like heavy rainfall and strong winds. Anyone in the eastern Caribbean – including the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola – as well as the Bahamas will need to keep a close eye on the forecast headed into the weekend.

Lee will ramp up in intensity as the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season approaches. Sunday, September 10, is the climatological peak of Atlantic hurricane season, when the basin is at its busiest on average. A flurry of tropical activity surrounding this date is not out of the ordinary, but it can turn hazardous fast.

The 2023 Atlantic season has already been busy: It is tracking above average for a number of different metrics including number of named storms, number of hurricanes and number of major hurricanes, according to Philip Klotzbach a research scientist at Colorado State University.

Venice has finally revealed the details for its entrance fee, making it the first city in the world to charge daytripper visitors.

Starting in spring 2024, visitors to the floating city will have to pay 5 euros ($5.40) to enter on peak days if they’re not staying the night.

But this isn’t a permanent move yet – the Venice authorities have committed to a 30-day “experiment,” according to mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who shared the news on Twitter/X.

Rather than operating over a calendar month, the authorities will scatter the chargeable days across the year, picking the days which are predicted to be busiest, for example holiday weekends and peak Carnival periods. In a statement, the council said that “the aim is to discourage day tourism in certain periods.” It added that a forthcoming resolution will set out the dates on which the fee will be applicable.

Daytrippers over the age of 14 entering the “old city” of Venice – the entirety of the lagoon city – will have to pay. Exemptions exist for locals, commuters and those with second homes in the city, who have paid local property tax – as well as for tourists who are staying overnight in the municipality, and those who are participating in sporting events. Those with exemptions will still have to register online to book their trip.

The move falls short of what was previously proposed. Since 2019, the city authorities had been debating a “contributo di accesso” (access fee) for all daytrippers, throughout the year, on a sliding scale from 3 euros to 10 euros.

That top 10 euros figure has now been reduced to a provisional 5 euros. Those only visiting the “minor islands” of the lagoon will also be exempt, meaning that, as the wording currently stands, tourists only visiting Burano or Murano – two islands which suffer from overtourism – wouldn’t have to pay if they got there directly. However, most visitors from outside the Veneto region pass through the city to reach them, so would still have to pay.

Simone Venturini, the city councilor for tourism, said in a statement that changes had been made from the original proposal after taking onboard the thoughts of citizens and opposition councilors.

“Aware of the urgency to find a new balance between the rights of those who live, work and study in Venice, and those who visit the city, we are setting ourselves up as global frontrunners,” he said in a statement.

“On certain days and in certain periods, we need innovative management of [footfall] flow, in order to stem daytripper tourism.

“Tourism management is a priority for the future of our city – a city that will always remain open to everyone.”

‘We need balance’

The money taken in entrance fees will cover the cost of the booking system but nothing more, he added.

Previously it was hoped that money could go towards improving facilities and infrastructure for residents, who have to deal with overflowing bins and trash dumped on the streets by tourists, who can outnumber residents by about five to one on busy days.

In July 2022, when the council had announced the start of the system for January 2023, councilor for the economy Michele Zuin had said that proceeds would go to lowering local taxes for residents.

“The message we want to put across is that Venice is open, but visitors must understand that we need proper planning to manage the balance between residence and tourism,” said Zuin in a statement this time.

“Residents will get a better quality of life, and overnight visitors will experience more vivid emotions,” added Venturini.

The resolution is set to be approved by the city council on September 12.

The first of many?

Previously, Venturini had announced that the entrance fee – which has been discussed since 2019 – would start in January 2023.

At the time, he called the new measure a “great revolution,” and a solution for the overtourism problem that the lagoon city has been struggling with for decades, adding that, “Venice is a living city and it has to stay that way.”

He had previously told RAI, the state TV network, that the pandemic had made the city authorities reflect.

“Covid made us realize that what was an everyday occurrence before Covid isn’t acceptable anymore – the mentality has changed, as has the sensitivity [towards crowds],” he said.

At the time, he said that the booking system would “give us the chance to know how many people are predicted for that day, and to calibrate services according to the number.”

Venturini had also said previously than the booking system would flag people that they might want to change their mind.

“We can say, ‘Dear visitor, we don’t advise coming on this date because it’s Ferragosto [August public holiday] or Easter – there’ll be a lot of people so it will hinder you from having a peaceful visit, and if you make it a week later you can enjoy your visit more,” he said.

Venturini also predicted that Venice won’t be the last to introduce a charge.

“I think many other European cites who live with significant numbers of daytrippers are watching us to understand in what way they can introduce [a similar scheme],” he said.

Venice may be the first city to introduce a fee, but already one village in Italy has introduced a charge for daytrippers. Civita di Bagnoregio introduced a “symbolic” fee of 1.50 euros ($1.67) in 2013. Mayor Francesco Bigiotti planned it as a marketing stunt to attract tourists to his village on a crumbling cliff, known as the “dying town.”

The fee intrigued visitors to such an extent that visitors grew from 40,000 in 2009 to 1 million in 2018.

Venice’s well-documented struggles with tourism have resulted in UNESCO drafting a resolution to add the city to its “World Heritage in Peril” list. The resolution will be voted on later this month.