Tourists in Venice fined $1500 for riding surfboards down the Grand Canal

Venice has fined a couple of tourists for riding motorized surfboards down the iconic Grand Canal. The tourists were booked for speeding and hovering right above the water's surface. On Wednesday, Venice's mayor Luigi Brugnaro took to Twitter and shared the video of the incident where he called the tourists "overbearing imbeciles who make a mockery of the City."

In the same post, the mayor also said that he will pay for the dinner of anyone who spots and reports these tourists. Soon after, the two surfers were caught and fined $1530 each, for their doings.
Venice is all set to take further strict actions against them for damaging the image of the city. These tourists have not only tried to damage the name of the city but have also endangered the safety of navigation along the canal. These tourists were also forced to leave the city. For those who don’t know, paddle boarding, surfing and canoeing are strictly prohibited on Venice's Grand Canal. Even swimming is not allowed in the canals here.

Ecco due imbecilli prepotenti che si fanno beffa della Città… chiedo a tutti di aiutarci a individuarli per punirli anche se le nostre armi sono davvero spuntate… servono urgentemente più poteri ai Sindaci in tema di sicurezza pubblica!
A chi li individua offro una cena! pic.twitter.com/DV2ONO3hUs

— Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) August 17, 2022

For years, the European city has been battling with incidents from overtourism. The waterways around Venice were declared a "national monument" a few years back and large cruise ships were completely banned from passing through these canals.

In order to control this, the government has taken steps to limit day traffic by introducing a new tax for day-trippers, which might get into effect next year. The tax will not be applicable on overnight visitors who book a hotel stay in the city.

Also, this is not the first time that Italy has fined a visitor for doing something illegal. Back in 2020, a tourist was fined $1200 for trying to carry out four pounds of sand from the Italian island of Sardinia.