Mammoth Cruise ship in the port of Venice
In a fiery new book described as a “pamphlet,” the authoritative archaeologist Salvatore Settis attacks Venice. For Settis, the beloved but troubled lagoon city has now become nothing more than a merchandise mall, in which there is just one inhabitant for every 600 tourists trotting through. Today, the local population had sunk to only 56,684 as of June 2014 whereas, in an almost terrifying contrast, the city has 6 million visitors annually.