Venice, in all its splendour, will soon be accessible by wheelchair
- The Venice city administration is planning a wheelchair accessible route through the city
- Initially, there will be one route that will allow all to go from Piazalle Roma to St. Mark’s
- The project is expected to cost $1.6 million
Venice is
arguably one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Its bridges, canals and
beautiful cobbled streets have made their way into canonical literary works , the classics of cinema and inspired art. Now, Venice’s streets are gearing up to take a
massive step in urban infrastructure as the city administration has decided to
make Venice wheelchair-friendly with its major sights accessible to all.
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To start
things off, the Venice city council has announced six ramps to be constructed in
parts of the city that see the most traffic. Four of them will be on the route
to St. Mark’s and the other two at crucial points that can be accessed by
locals. The upgrade is expected to cost the government around $1.6 million.
The aim of
the project is to build at least one route that permits people of all ages to
go at least from Piazzale Roma (the gateway to the Italian mainland) to St. Mark’s
without barriers, said Francesca Zaccariotto, the councilor for public works in
Venice, to CNN.
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Once the project
is complete, it will be the first time Venice will be accessible to wheelchairs
in its history since 421 CE when it was founded.
According
to the public works councilor, the project will not only be accessible by
wheelchair but will also be easier to access by blind people, which wasn’t part
of the original plan.
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Talking
about the changes being made, Zaccariotto said, “We are doing interventions on
bridges, making steps easier to climb, and adding non-slippery surfaces that
make everything more navigable.
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Wheelchair
users have hailed the administration’s move.
This is not
the first time Venice has attempted to make the city accessible by wheelchair.
In 2016, two innovative gondoliers created a wheelchair-accessible gondola at
their own expense. However, the Gondolas4all project has lost steam due to a
lack of funding.
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